Tayside Health bosses are also planning to introduce charges for the disabled.

A four-hour time limit is also being introduced in the three car parks closest to the hospital, including the disabled car park.

There will also be an end to free parking for patients visiting the accident and emergency department, but six emergency “set down” spaces will be introduced.

The proposal pegs parking for patients to £1.50 for four hours (currently, the charge is £1.50 no matter the time parked).

The belief is that four hours is time enough for a clinical appointment.

However, the proposal allows a waiver on any penalty notice for over-staying if the recipient can prove a longer appointment.

The variable charges are aimed at encouraging a higher turnover of cars occupying the 2400 parking spaces and treating patients more fairly.

There has long been concern that some patients have been treated as exceptions, while others, including those making regular return visits for life-saving treatment, such as cancer sufferers, do pay.

Last year, NHS Tayside chairman Peter Bates called in Bill Spence, the former chief constable of Tayside, to conduct a review of car parking at Ninewells.

Mr Spence brought together a small group including representatives of the hospital, Dundee City Council, who have been instrumental in improving the bus stance area at the site, and representatives of the private contractor Vinci Park, who operate the site.

It is their report that will go to tomorrow’s meeting of the board of NHS Tayside.

Members will be asked to approve the recommendations, which include continuing the existing “compassionate permit arrangements”, but extending that to make available additional free permits for patients who are required to attend “on a regular frequent basis”.

The review focused on solutions to increasing complaints from patients and visitors, who were finding it increasingly difficult to find spaces close to the main entrance.

In addition, the review considered the case of those attending for regular treatment and tackled abuse of disabled spaces by non-disabled drivers.

The group believes their recommendations will improve access for disabled drivers attending the hospital and that disabled drivers will be prepared to pay for that improved access.

The plan is to phase in the proposals over six months, starting next month.

In his foreword to the report, Mr Spence makes clear the proposals will not be a long-term solution to the crisis at Ninewells.

“This has the potential to relieve some of the pressure, but it is clear the attendance levels within the site are such that management measures will be overtaken in early course by the continued demand for access from the public alone.

“To meet these pressures, and to allow those attending for treatment reasonably adequate access, additional parking adjacent and close to the hospital is necessary.”

* Councillor Nigel Don, councillor for the Ninewells ward and SNP group transportation spokesman, welcomed the move to shake up parking arrangements at the hospital.

But he warned there could be “worrying” implications for the effect the proposals may have on parking in surrounding residential areas.

“If it is true that those using the car parks at Ninewells are treating them as a kind of ‘park and ride’, then these proposals make sense and should act as a deterrent,” he said.

“If they are wrong then I question the overall logic of these plans, because there are not going to be any more spaces or fewer cars wishing to use them. They will simply be moving them around.”

He added, “This could be a problem as there would then be a lot more people determined to find a space elsewhere — most likely in nearby residential areas.”

Councillor Don said he believed more must be done to try to get people travelling to the hospital — for work or treatment — to leave their cars at home.