CAR park charges are set to rise at Wycombe Hospital to help fund extra security for staff and patients.

The charges, which go up from Sunday, will help support the cost of security staff patrolling at night and digital cameras for the car park in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe.

The move has been welcomed by Ailsa Harrison, chief officer of the health watchdog, South Buckinghamshire Community Health Council.

But she warned that charges should not take such a huge increase that patients and visitors cannot afford to park at the hospital.

She said: "If you have someone in hospital and you want to visit them every day, or even twice a day, the costs mount up.

"People don't choose to go into hospital. It isn't like visiting a leisure centre."

The increase comes a month after Wycombe Hospital theatre nurse Wendy Ringrose was one of three people who had their cars wrecked by vandals in the car park.

She blamed a lack of security for the damage but hospital chiefs are hoping the extra parking charges will help put a stop to problems with vandalism.

The increases will hit people staying shorter lengths of time, up to four hours. Drivers who stay from five to 12 hours will pay less, while people parking for 24 hours will pay the same.

At the moment people pay 60p to park for up to two hours. Now it will be 60p for the first hour and 80p for two.

The only people who will not have to pay are drivers who are able to find one of the limited number of 20-minute slots, where patients can be dropped off.

Evening parking, after 7pm, goes up from 50p to 80p.

A hospital spokesman said the increase at the lower end was because statistics showed that very few people used the car park for longer than four hours, even people who were not using the hospital.