HOT TOPIC: Where are the modern replacements for York's closed mental hospitals as Bootham Park follows closure of Naburn, Clifton and Whixley?

Where are the modern, new replacements?

With long waits just to get an appointment, mental health in York is in total collapse. Patients who are in desperate need of care are being denied it.

The situation is not confined to just mental health, with York and other hospitals in crisis, patients’ operations cancelled and waiting lists growing.

Staff are demoralised, seeing pay and conditions eroded. It doesn’t matter how many cutbacks are made, it will still end up in deeper financial trouble, progressively getting worse until it is put into special measures.

The whole of the NHS is being set up to fail by this government and prepared for privatisation, as many parts already are.

Wake up people. The NHS in the next few years will die unless we the people do something about it.

Chris Mangham, Lindsey Avenue, Acomb, York

IN regards to the recent closure of Bootham Park Hospital, I can honestly say how truly grateful I am to have received care from the crisis team there when I was indeed in crisis. The clue’s in the name: Crisis.

These are the most vulnerable people in our society.

They need their family around them.

How is this possible when they’ve been shipped off to Middlesbrough; more than 40 miles away?

What kind of upheaval must that have been for the mentally unwell?

And let’s not forget the patients who have been conveniently discharged back into the community.

I became ill in Thailand where the only hospital in the entire country that is equipped to cope with mental illness costs £1,000 per night.

Thankfully, I was able to come home and be treated at Bootham Park Hospital close to my family.

We need to fight for our NHS and stop the closure of hospitals like Bootham.

It is a beautiful and historical building.

The CQC had already said, months ago, it was not fit for purpose and changes needed to be made, so why weren’t they?

Rosie Pearson, Poppleton Road, York

YORK Georgian Society has followed reports of the sudden closure of Bootham Park Hospital with dismay.

Dating from 1777, and designed by the highly regarded York architect John Carr, Bootham Park Hospital was one of the first purpose-built psychiatric hospitals in the country.

The society is shocked that the buildings have been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair that it has been found necessary to close them down at such short notice.

It is further shocked to read a report that the new head of mental health services for York has said he is “99 per cent confident a brand new hospital can be built” (The Press, October 3).

We sincerely hope he is not proposing to demolish the Grade I-Listed hospital and replace it with a new building.

The society believes there is considerable public support for the retention and continued use of such a significant historic building, and we would encourage every effort for its repair and refurbishment so that it might continue to perform its much valued original purpose.

Ian Small, chairman, York Georgian Society

HAVING tried to live my life on the basis that no experience is wasted provided you learn from it, what a pity politicians do not do the same.

The recent tragic loss of Bootham Park Hospital brought back sad memories of similar circumstances when I lived next to Tooting Bec Hospital in London.

The hospital was closed to provide a block of private flats and a petrol station in this beautiful location.

No forward planning, many patients just “fed into the community”. One such “friend” of mine was terrified after most of his life in care.

He just could not cope and used to get into embarrassing situations just to prove his need to continue his present life.

After the closure another “friend” who used to beg outside the sweet shop for money for chocolate, and whom I regularly helped, one day took matters into her own hands when I ran out of change and attempted to grab me and my bag. The shopkeeper had to come to my rescue. Frightening.

What price progress without planning?

Liz Edge, Parkside Close, York

SINCE the meeting held at West Offices regarding Bootham Park Hospital and the city MPs both providing support, the biggest support has been the community of this city rallying together. It is an old saying “unity is strength” and it’s happening.

Let’s hope this situation is eventually sorted and a success story will be at the end of it all. This country can be proud of its many citizens. In any situation that arises, they can turn a crisis round to a story of success.

Keith Chapman, Custance Walk, York

I WAS very disappointed that Bootham Park Hospital had to close.

I have visited people in Bootham and it was clean and the staff were very good. A lot of the patients sat outside in the sunshine and talked to us.

It’s such a shame. Some of them called it their home.

Mrs M Jackson, Spalding Avenue, Clifton, York