PATIENTS, staff and visitors to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford will soon be able to access it faster and more directly.

A £500,000 investment from the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and Oxfordshire County Council will see two new "bus only" link roads open tomorrow.

The new barrier-controlled routes are opening to prepare for the relocation of services from the 236-year-old Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford to the new purpose-built children's hospital and adult West Wing on the JR site in January, 2007.

This will mean thousands of extra staff and patients travelling through Headington to get to the JR site.

Ian Humphries, director of estates and facilities at the trust, said: "This is the latest in a series of planned changes and improvements at the JR, to improve access to the site, whether coming as a pedestrian, by bus, car or bicycle."

The two new roads, from Osler Road and Saxon Way, will improve a number of bus services which access the JR site.

Jacquie Pearce-Gervis, of the hospital's Patient and Public Involvement Forum, said: "The residents of Osler Road and Saxon Way will not welcome the additional traffic, but this should make traffic in Headington less congested overall because there will be less pressure on the main entrance in Headley Way."

The investment has also enabled new cycle routes and footpaths to and across the hospital site. A new 150-space pay car park for patients and visitors will open in November this year.