Concern is growing that the park-and-ride bus service for visitors and outpatients at Wirral's main hospital could be withdrawn.

Bosses at Arrowe Park Hospital told the Globe a review of the service, which runs every 20 minutes from Sainsbury's Upton store to the hospital and back, is now underway.

A spokesman said: “In recent years car parking space for visitors and patients has increased at Arrowe Park Hospital, particularly since the opening of a new car park at the site last year.

“The park-and-ride at Sainsbury’s was introduced prior to this at a time when parking at Arrowe Park Hospital was extremely limited.

"Therefore, an independent survey is being carried out to understand the current usage of the park-and-ride service."

But some visitors told us they are suspicious of the hospital's motives.

One said: "They're charging for parking at the hospital and if they can dump the park-and-ride buses it will mean more people having to pay to leave their cars in the car park."

The hospital representative denied this, saying parking charges have not resulted in any profit as money raised is ploughed back in. 

Back in December the hospital again defended parking charges saying they spent more on traffic management measures last year than the £1.5m they received from parking fees.

And an outcry was sparked last August when the cost of leaving a car for more than 20 minutes at Arrowe Park rocketed overnight from £2.50 to £3.20.