Ron Pateman drives his wife Shirley to the hospital for regular appointments, including for cancer treatment, but he said Mrs Pateman, who is 80 and also suffers from dementia, becomes disoriented and distressed when he is forced to leave her on her own while he looks for a bay.

“She doesn’t know where to go or what to do,” he said.

“Sometimes for a blood sample or a blood test she’s got to go up to the first floor but she thinks she’s got to go way up to the fifth floor, that’s how confused she gets.

“Someone’s got to take her, otherwise she gets lost.”

Mr Pateman said his wife’s health issues meant she could not walk long distances, and despite having a disability parking permit in their car, often all the disabled spaces close enough to the hospital are taken.

“I leave early, we get in there sometimes half an hour or so before the appointment and we drive around and if we can’t get a park – the last time I dropped her off and told her to wait, I said ‘Don’t go anywhere because we have to go up on the lift,’ and raced up to Stewart Street and got a park up there,” he said.

“She gets exhausted if you know what I mean, she’s had two hip replacements, plus she’s had two knee replacements and she suffers with cramping and chest pain and she often gets a back ache, down in the base of her spine, which does make it hard for walking.”

Mr Pateman said the ordeal was emotionally draining for both of them, but he felt he was left with no other option.

“She does get upset, apparently different ladies have escorted her back to the foyer but she thinks she’s been upstairs somewhere, she gets upset pretty easily actually,” he said.

“Sometimes I get pretty emotional when I’ve got to tell them.”

A Bendigo Health spokeswoman said the hospital had more disabled car parks than ever before, but acknowledged the demand for them could sometimes exceed the number of available spaces.

“A new car park is currently under construction, due for completion in mid-2018 and will feature 505 car spaces in total, including 10 disabled car parks,” she said.

“In the meantime, we will work with our partners to increase the number of disabled car parks in the precinct and call on the City of Greater Bendigo council to support this.”

The City of Greater Bendigo was contacted for comment.