VULNERABLE mental health patients in York have been betrayed by a management system that can only be described as shambolic.

When Bootham Park Hospital closes tomorrow - having been given only a few days notice by Care Quality Commission inspectors - there will be not a single psychiatric in-patient bed for working age adults in York.

Eight of the hospital's patients will transfer to Middlesbrough - taking them away from family and friends.

Up to 20 more are suddenly somehow considered fit for release to community services, even though they were clearly deemed to need inpatient care until the Bootham Park closure was announced.

It is still far from clear what will happen to psychiatric outpatients, meanwhile. And the future of some 300 staff is also in doubt.

Even worse, the new health trust which is supposed to be taking over mental health services in York on Thursday still hasn't signed the contract.

This whole farcical mess is simply unacceptable.

Mental health patients are amongst the most vulnerable people in society.

Yet in York they are being treated as second class citizens in terms of the care they receive.

That isn't the fault of health professionals. It is the fault of failing NHS management structures.

As former Bootham Park consultant psychiatrist Dr Bob Adams says, responsibility for mental health care in York has been passed from one NHS organisation to another in recent years.

Small wonder none of them got to grips with the chronic lack of investment which allowed Bootham Park to deteriorate to the point it became a hazard to patients.

As Dr Adams says today, it is high time someone very senior in the NHS gets a grip before mental health care in York descends further into chaos.