PATIENTS hit by transport problems at the Royal United Hospital may have to wait until the end of September before Bath & North East Somerset Council approves an action plan to combat access difficulties.

The action plan had been urged in a report handed to the council last month.

The report, carried out by a special scrutiny panel set up by the council, concluded that the council executive must put into place the action plan "within a short time span".

Now the council has said that it may be the autumn before any steps are taken.

A spokesman for Bath & North East Somerset Council said: "It would be too ambitious to say that the action plan will be put through by the end of July.

"We have had a lot of changes in the decision-making process. We are not being delayed, the end of September is the deadline we are being given and it will be more towards that deadline when the action plan will be put through."

The hospital has been beset by access problems for several years, prompting the creation of the panel this January to look at possible solutions.

The report said that the problem stems from the huge number of people that come to the hospital. More than 4,000 staff and outpatients visit the hospital every day, of which more than 1,600 come by car.

This is the crux of the problem, according to the report. It also claimed: "The current car parking space at the hospital simply cannot cope with the volume of traffic."

It added that the number of vehicles means drivers park on grass verges and footpaths.

The inability of outpatients to park is not helped by a poor bus service which the report blamed on, amongst other causes, a lack of effective demand and a lack of interest by bus companies put off by the high cost of running the service.

Measures put forward in the action plan include improving the arrangements for on-site parking by cutting down on the number of cars allowed into the hospital; increasing the number of buses in the park and ride bus scheme; creating greater choice and flexibility in appointment times and locations; and to get more people to use public transport rather than private cars.

The council spokesman said: "This matter is a priority for the council. We wish to see the changes as soon as possible, however, we have to be realistic considering the time we are given and the extra thought that needs to be given to the subject before any final decision is taken."