THE closure of Bootham Park Hospital is not a major surprise.

Anyone who has been a patient or visitor has known for a long time that it was not suitable for modern day care.

However, the speed of this closure is shocking.

These are people who are very vulnerable and how cruel to put them and their families through this ordeal.

There is a human cost here and whoever allowed this to happen should hang their heads in shame.

It seems to me that not only is the building not fit for purpose but some highly paid people who could and should have avoided this situation are also not fit.

Until mental health is given the same funding and parity with physical health then this could happen in other places.

Yvonne Liddell, Beckett Drive, Osbaldwick, York

 

THE wrecking crew from the Care Quality Commission are bent on making the lives of mentally ill people in York much worse.

But something seems to have been overlooked following their bizarre instruction to shut Bootham Park Hospital almost overnight.

Patients in distress and in urgent need of calmness and order are now to be shipped off to distant parts.

Yet in this city we have one of the best mental hospitals in the entire country.

There may good reasons why The Retreat does not work together with Bootham Park in normal times. But now we are in crisis, so isn’t it time for The Retreat to show the compassion for which Quakers are renowned and do things differently for a while?

Their website says they work in partnership with the NHS and this suggests they have a duty to assist in minimising the pain caused by the CQC.

York led the world in pioneering humane and intelligent treatment of mental illness. The present mess shames us all. Bootham Park Hospital is not perfect.

To this first-time visitor in 1988 it appeared dilapidated and dismal.

Two months ago, the last time I visited patient on an acute ward, it was hugely improved. And it’s infinitely better than some cobbled-together plan for ‘community care’.

Mick Hickling, Clifton Dale, York