Barriers at the William Harvey Hospital have been left open this evening as bosses attempt to avoid trapping drivers in the car park.

Hundreds spent more than an hour stuck in the car park yesterday evening after barriers timed out before they were able to leave.

Drivers caught up in the chaos said barriers appeared to be faulty, but the hospital has denied this.

Although the barriers are no longer an issue, drivers attempting to leve the car park are still facing long delays due to faulty traffic lights at nearby junction 10.

Yesterday one driver said: “We came out of William Harvey at 5.00pm and paid for parking at the machine outside the hospital entrance.

“As we entered the car park we realised that from the car park entrance to the exit was jammed solid.

“We sat in our car for 40 minutes before we were able to join the line waiting to exit.

“At 6.20pm we finally managed to leave. Hats off to the vast majority of those stuck all good natured and kindly letting others out.”

Lee Harris, another motorist caught in the chaos, said he was stuck for about an hour and a half.

He said: “Everyone was more angry as there was no one on site to talk to.

“There was only the help button on the pay machine and everyone was worried about if they were going to get out as they paid for the parking but could not go anywhere.

“The people on the help machine said it was down to the barrier. The left one was working but the right side one was not working at all.

“Also people’s tickets timed out so the traffic was not moving even before the lights were not working.

“I don’t know why they could not send people to the other exit of the hospital, the back way.”

A spokesman for the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHFT) said the problems were caused by traffic outside hospital grounds.

“We can confirm that there were no faults with the car parking barriers at the William Harvey Hospital on Monday afternoon.

"An issue with traffic lights outside the site did however result in a build-up of traffic which delayed those trying to exit the car park.

"For some patients and visitors, the 20 minute window to leave the car park had passed due to the traffic and their ticket automatically disabled.

However the helpline was fully operational to assist our patients and visitors who had passed the 20 minute period and as soon as we were made aware of the problem we immediately raised both exit barriers to enable as speedy exit as possible.”