A NEW psychiatric hospital is due to be built in York to replace Bootham Park Hospital, it has been confirmed.

Facilities at Bootham Park Hospital are no longer adequate for modern mental health care, service users and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors have said.

As the Grade 1 listed building cannot be altered sufficiently, Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group has agreed it would look to find funding for a new hospital.

Inpatient facilities at both Bootham and Lime Trees - a mental health unit for children and young people - were both deemed unsuitable by the CQC, meaning patients need to be moved out of both into alternative accommodation "as soon as possible".

Patients are due to move out of Bootham into Peppermill Court off Huntington Road and Cherry Tree House in Tang Hall and out of Lime Trees into Mill Lodge in Huntington Road as an interim measure while plans for the new hospital go ahead.

In the long term Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT)  is in talks with NHS England to move Lime Trees into more suitable accommodation.

Rachel Potts, the CCG’s chief operating officer said:  “Bootham Park Hospital was built in 1774, it has served the people of the Vale of York will for 240 years, but the time has come for it to be replaced.

“The CCG believes that the review of mental health services gives us a fantastic opportunity to define the best possible model of care within which we can design a state of the art hospital facility.

“There is no health without mental health and the CCG is confident that the consultation process will allow it to commission innovative solutions that are fit for the 21st century.”

Bootham Hospital's wards 1 and 2, the place of safety and and crisis assessment service will move to Peppermill Court in 15 to 18 months and the elderly assessment unit currently based at Bootham Park Hospital will move to Cherry Tree House in six months.

The needs of 12 men currently in Peppermill Court are being assessed and they may be transferred to   Meadowfields in York, Worsley Court in Selby or at The Retreat in York, LYPFT said.

Inpatient facilities are due to move from Lime Trees to the empty Mill Lodge in six months. Mill Lodge will have enough capacity to provide local care for a number of young people who have previously been sent out of area because of insufficient facilities, a spokesman for LYPFT said.

Other services for children and young people will remain at the current Lime Trees site.
Consultations are due to be held throughout the summer about the precise nature of the hospital.

The consultation process will also look to determine the range of services that should be provided in the community setting, a CCG spokesman said.