Taking on the car park queue at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital may not be for the faint-hearted.

It’s certainly not advisable for the very ill, or for anyone in a rush to meet a scheduled appointment... unless, of course, you know a shortcut.

An hour’s wait in line behind some 50 vehicles may represent an added stress for someone calling in to see a sick relative.

And, there’s no denying it could become a horrific ordeal if the commute needs to be repeated on a daily basis.

But — leaving tantrums aside — at the end of the day the message is simple: visitors should allow themselves plenty of time.

Spurred on by complaints of massive traffic queues, the Belfast Telegraph decided to take on the challenge of peak time visiting yesterday afternoon.

Situated in the city centre, there are two entrances that lead to the main carpark; one via Grosvenor Road and another at Broadway.

We approached the hospital from the Grosvenor Road shortly after 2pm to find plenty of cars parked along the roadside, but no queue.

Travelling down towards the roundabout at the Broadway entrance, however, we caught a glimpse of the problem as we joined a line of around 25 cars.

Some 30 minutes later — having witnessed two vehicles make U-turns to exit and numerous passengers abandon cars and take to the footpath — we arrived at the main visitors car park.

Finding an empty space was relatively easy, although some drivers had opted to wait in line for a space closer to the hospital building, on the upper level of the carpark.

Perhaps surprisingly, there was a mixed reaction to the queue |situation amongst the visitors we polled.

Before storming off, one woman, who refused to be named, barked: “We weren’t stuck in traffic, we were just slowly moving.”

Janet Griffin (46), from Belfast, who was visiting her sister who is in intensive care, said it had |only taken 10 minutes to get into the car park via the Grosvenor Road.

“We came just before visiting hours began at 2pm and the |traffic wasn’t too bad,” she said.

Ardboe woman Joanne Quinn (34), however, said she was surprised it took so long to reach the car park. “My husband Niall has a hospital appointment and if I hadn’t been here to drop him off, he would have definitely missed it,” Mrs Quinn said.

“The hospital should definitely do something about the queues.”

A man from Glenarm, who asked not to be named, hit out at the parking facilities.

“I’m up here every day to visit my girlfriend and it’s a complete nightmare,” the lorry driver said.

“I’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes waiting for a space and it has been the same problem all week. It’s also not unusual to wait for the guts of an hour to get into the carpark in the first place.

“It’s an absolute disgrace for the size of the hospital.”

Telecommunications worker Danny McLaughlin (54), from |Lisburn, said he wasn’t a regular visitor. “It took me about 10 minutes to get in to the carpark and then another 15 minutes to find a space,” he said.

“I come up about three times a year and this was definitely the worst for queues.

Margaret Duggan (79), a homemaker from Castlewellan, said she had waited over half an hour in line. “They really do need to do something about the carparking situation,” Mrs Duggan said.

Belfast coffee shop manager Stuart Atkinson (32), who was visiting his father in hospital, also called for an improvement.

“I came in from Broadway about 2pm and it took half an hour to get parked,” he said.

“But that was nothing compared to the people in the cars behind me. Every time I come here there’s always a massive queue and sometimes it takes over 45 minutes to reach the car park.”

A Belfast Trust spokesman said: “We regret any inconvenience caused to patients or visitors who may have to wait for a car parking space at peak times.”