AN AMBULANCE crew who delivered a patient to Medway Maritime Hospital were astonished to find they had been given a parking ticket.

The Patient Transport Services (PTS) ambulance pulled up at the main entrance of the hospital to drop off a pensioner who had an outpatient's appointment.

But while they were escorting the patient to the right department, an over-zealous car park attendant decided the ambulance was parked illegally and slapped a ticket on it.

A Kent Ambulance staff member who was at the hospital at the time but did not want to be named said: "It is absolutely ludicrous. On many occasions, PTS ambulance crews are escorting elderly and infirm patients to and from their appointments.

"Many can't walk very fast and it takes quite a bit of time to get them to the right department. We are given a half an hour waiting time at the main entrance, but often it takes longer.

"On this occasion, when the crew came back from dropping off their patient they found they had been give a ticket. It is just crazy.

"Does this mean in future when delivering patients we should just leave them at the entrance? Many patients don't know where they have to go."

The Gillingham hospital is currently trying to ease congestion just outside the main entrance and the parking team had been given instructions to penalise vehicles which they found to be illegally parked.

Kent Ambulance NHS Trust spokesman Paul Gates said: "The hospital is clamping down on people parking vehicles outside the entrance. The matter was quickly resolved and we will not be paying the fine".

A spokesman for Medway NHS Trust added: "A member of the car park team misunderstood the instructions he had been given and wrongly issued a parking ticket to an ambulance."