Patients and staff were forced to abandon their cars at Glasgow’s new hospital after being hit by severe congestion in the grounds.

Drivers faced lengthy delays to leave the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital due to ongoing works inside and outside the hospital. The situation is said to have peaked on Wednesday night.

Some drivers are said to have abandoned their vehicles in the hospital’s car parks after waiting more than an hour to exit.

Drivers complained that the traffic lights sequence has not been set correctly to deal with the volume of traffic entering and leaving the grounds.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said the delays were due in part to roadworks being carried out in the surrounding roads which were “beyond their control.”

The board said temporary traffic lights had also been installed within the hospital grounds due to ongoing building work.

The board said it was monitoring traffic flow and had relocated traffic lights to ease congestion.

One patient said: “Staff and patients had to abandon their cars within the hospital grounds, many having to walk home as they were unable to leave the hospital car parks.

“Many sat in their cars in queues within the car parks for over an hour, some could not even move out of their parking space due to long queues, with some leaving their cars in the parking spaces and walking home.

“This is a result of not only temporary traffic lights in place, but also the traffic light sequence around the exits from the hospitals clearly not set correctly to deal with the volume of traffic entering and leaving all exits to and from the hospital grounds.”

Another driver said: “It’s taken me an hour and a half to get out of the car park.

“They are doing some work and there are temporary traffic lights just at the exit.

“There are also cones on Govan Road which could be making it worse.

“This is the worst it’s been.”

He thought the work had been going on for two or three weeks and believes they are putting in a filter lane, ironically, “to make it easier to get out of the car park.”

A spokeswoman for NHSGGC said: “The problems we have experienced with traffic leaving the site are easing and we are grateful to staff and visitors for their patience during the last week.

“The delays leaving and entering the site have been due in part to road works being carried out on the surrounding roads to the site and these are beyond our control.

“Some of the road works are already complete and the remaining road works are expected to be finished in less than three weeks..

“There are also temporary traffic lights on the site as building work is still ongoing.

“We are monitoring the traffic flow and have already taken steps to move the 3-way lights which has eased the situation.