BOOTHAM Park Hospital could be closed and replaced under new plans to improve mental health provisions in the city.

The trust in charge of NHS mental health services in York and Selby said the inpatient facilities at the hospital were no longer adequate for modern mental health care and a new inpatient building was needed.

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust said it hopes to negotiate with the owner of the site –NHS Property Services Ltd – to secure new facilities.

It has not been confirmed whether it will be possible to develop this on the site of the listed Bootham Park Hospital or whether it would be elsewhere in the city.

Jill Copeland, chief operating officer at Leeds and York PFT, said: “We have got Bootham Park Hospital which is a really lovely old building, it’s a beautiful building, but it’s not the best place to care for people in 21st century mental health care so we’re looking to work with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), who are keen on this as well, and the property service company which owns the building.

“What we’d ideally like is a new building, new accommodation built for people who need inpatient care.

“Bootham Park Hospital was built in the 1700s – if you were starting from scratch you wouldn’t choose to build it in that way and because it’s a listed building it’s quite hard to put in the modern things you want to for mental health care today because you are limited by the structure of the building.

“We want to be able to provide the best services we can for people who need to come into hospital care in modern facilities. If we could make that happen in the next few years that would be fantastic.”

She said new inpatient facilities “may be on the site or may be somewhere different.”

The hopes for Bootham Hospital are also shared by health commissioners in York.

Alan Maynard, lay chairman of the Vale of York CCG, said in an interview with The Press: “In ten years time I would like you to put on my tombstone we shut Bootham. It’s not just about services, but the environment in which they are delivered.” It is also hoped new inpatient accommodation for children and young people can be developed for Lime Trees based in Shipton Road.