It comes as a local accessibility group continues to press for changes to what the group says is a dangerous exit on the Mitre Street side.

The Bathurst Regional Access Committee (BRAC) thought it had secured a commitment last year to have a stop sign added to the hospital’s top Mitre Street entrance and exit, but the sign has yet to go up.

The committee is concerned about the exit because of the high wall and fence that, committee members say, stops drivers from seeing pedestrians.

BRAC chairman/secretary Bob Triming said the committee was under the impression back in August that the hospital authorities had agreed to install the stop sign and add accompanying line road marking after receiving a letter about the changes from state Member for Bathurst Paul Toole.

The committee had previously been speaking to Bathurst Hospital general manager Sue Patterson about its concerns, but is now speaking to acting general manager Cathy Marshall.

In its most recent letter to Ms Marshall, the committee said the exit and its dangers should be a “minor matter easily overcome, but it is becoming an annoying persistent pedestrian danger that is becoming extremely difficult to have remedied”.

The committee said there had been a “small yellow sign painted onto the footpath surface at each layback on the pedestrian walkway”, but said the concern was with the “traffic and lack of the drivers’ vision blocked by the wall and fence, not the pedestrians, so these signs are relatively useless”.

The committee said the stop sign and road marking would be a more effective way of eliminating any dangers to pedestrians.

“The only other alternative – short of awaiting an accident and not the near misses that have happened to date – would be to remove the offending wall, thereby giving a clear line of sight to both drivers and pedestrians as required by RMS guidelines,” the letter said.

Contacted about the access committee’s concerns, a Western NSW Local Health District spokesperson said Bathurst Health Service “has agreed to review both the Mitre and Howick street entrance/exits as part of the broader planning required for the extension of car parking” on the hospital site.

“It was previously agreed that additional pedestrian signage would be provided, and this has occurred,” the spokesperson said.

“Advice has been sought from Bathurst Regional Council and any recommendations for effective mitigation measures will be considered during the car park planning.”