Withdrawal of free parking for patients attending the accident and emergency department will also generate cash to extend the compassionate parking scheme.

Ninewells site manager Brian Main said nursing staff would have the authority to issue the free fobs to seriously ill patients requiring regular treatment, or visitors keeping a bedside vigil that could go on for days or weeks.

For the first time, disabled people and those attending A&E will lose the right to free parking following NHS Tayside’s introduction of a raft of new measures last week.

The parking review, conducted by former Tayside Chief Constable Bill Spence, took place partly in response to complaints from cancer patients and others required to attend hospital frequently who end up paying huge amounts in parking fees over the course of their treatment.

The review group called for an extension to the compassionate fob system, but gave no indication how many people would benefit.

At the moment, there are just 25 compassionate fobs for the whole hospital, where hundreds of new patients are diagnosed with cancer each year and around 130 patients with kidney failure have to attend three or four times a week for dialysis.

They fobs are not really free, although the patients and visitors using them do not pay.

“We pay for 25 compassionate fobs,” said Mr Main.

“I get invoiced every month for them (by Vinci Park, the company which has a 30-year contract to operate the car parks at Ninewells).

“They tend to be given to parents with a baby in the special care baby unit, where they are in hospital for weeks and it’s like the parents are staying here.”

Mr Main said they were also issued to relatives of people in the intensive care unit.

He said the compassionate fob scheme would be “significantly” extended. Details of how the scheme would work in practice have still to be worked out, and the new charging arrangements can be put in place only after detailed discussions have taken place with Vinci Park sand contract variations have been agreed.

But Mr Main said Vinci Park had made clear it did not seek financial benefit from the introduction of fees for disabled people and those attending A&E.

“The income from that will be significant, which we firmly believe will adequately provide the additional compassionate fobs we need,” Mr Main said.

He reminded the public that the decision to introduce charges of £15 for a stay of over seven hours affected only two car parks closest to the hospital and was a “disincentive” to discourage long- stay parking.

He stressed there were over 2000 spaces on the site that would remain at the standard charge of £1.50 for an unlimited visit.

* MSPs are to investigate hospital parking charges amid mounting complaints from constituents, it emerged today.

The short probe is to be carried out by Holyrood’s Health Committee and is likely to be completed before the summer recess.

SNP MSP Roseanna Cunningham, the committee’s convener, said the MSPs had decided “in principle” to look at the issue on the suggestion of Kate Maclean, Labour MSP for Dundee West.

Earlier this month, NHS Tayside backed plans to charge up to £15 for parking in the grounds of Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital.

The two car parks closest to the hospital will have a £1.50 four-hour limit.

But non-visitors who park their cars for longer than seven hours will face a £15 charge in an attempt to target motorists who park in the hospital grounds and walk into the city.

Ms Cunningham, MSP for Perth, said the problem was growing as NHS centralisation meant more people had to use big hospitals such as Ninewells or Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where charges were also an issue.

“The idea of an inquiry was proposed by a member of the committee who, like me, is a Tayside MSP, and the Ninewells parking review has generated quite a lot of negative headlines,” said Ms Cunningham.

“We are aware this is a widespread problem.

“A great many people have to travel considerable distances, either as relatives or visitors or for treatment themselves.

“I have had people from as far away as Comrie involved in taking relatives to Ninewells for treatment who find the car parking situation extremely difficult.”