Staff have been pushing to have changes made to existing parking arrangements within the campus, so that shift workers are not forced to leave their cars some distance away or face lengthy solo walks late at night, while they wait for the multi-deck facility to be built.

When it is finished, the car park is expected to have 800 spaces, boosting the eventual number on site to 1200.

But it is not scheduled to be built until 2021, after stage three of the redevelopment is completed.

Amit Gupta, who is president of the Wagga Base Hospital branch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, said the problem was that existing parking spaces were full by the time night shift staff arrived for work, meaning they had to park on surrounding streets.

“It’s a security issue,” Mr Gupta said.

“A lot of the parking spaces close by are only two hours, so if we park in them, we could get a ticket.

“The hospital says we can go out and move them, but it can take 20 or 25 minutes and we can’t always to leave the patients to do it.”

Wagga Base Hospital director Helen Cooper said the safety of patients, visitors and staff at Wagga was paramount.

Four years ago, the hospital introduced a shuttle bus service, which runs between 9.30pm and 10.30pm, to drop staff near their cars, while security staff escorts were available after that.

Member for Wagga Joe McGirr, a former director of Wagga Base Hospital, has sounded a warning about the impact of other major building works in the health precinct.

Work on the multi-storey ambulatory care building – the centrepiece of stage three – would likely coincide with plans to construct a new state-of-the-art teaching facility at the adjoining UNSW Rural Medical School.

Dr McGirr, whose personal preference is for the car park to be built before the stage three work begins, is calling for the formation of a health precinct planning group, involving not only hospital administrators, but Wagga City Council, the medical school, RMS and other interested groups.

“I think there’s going to be a problem,” he said.

“There needs to be a lot of planning now, ahead of the work.”

Opposition spokesman for health Walt Secord on Friday reaffirmed Labor’s commitment to build the car park if it wins the March election.

“Labor’s commitment to the car park is iron-clad,” he said.

He also accused the current government of “pushing the pause button” on the car park project.

However, Health Minister Brad Hazzard dismissed these claims as “complete rot”, and said the car park project would begin as soon as stage three was completed.