THE closure of Bootham Hospital will not bring back those who have died because change was resisted and postponed till the last possible moment. They stay dead. They deserved better.

More important than simply a replacement hospital will be a recognition by those in control, both psychiatrists and managers, of what failed to measure up at Bootham and why.

Let us hope we don’t have to wait another 240 years for the penny to drop.

Gareth Papps, Main Street, Stillington.