AS a user of mental-health services in York, I want to comment on the abrupt closure of Bootham Park Hospital.

The sudden closure of the hospital will have a negative impact on the inpatients.

Those assessed as fit enough have been discharged. They have not had the opportunity to prepare themselves for the change.

It will also have affected family and carers, who have had to arrange care and support needed at very short notice.

The patients who were assessed as not being fit to be discharged have been moved to other hospitals out of the York area.

They will have to get used to a different hospital and environment, meet a new staff team and develop trust with that team.

Family or friends may not be able to visit as regularly, if at all, because of the distance or cost.

Someone assessed as needing inpatient care could struggle with these changes and they could have a negative impact on their illness.

The decision to close the hospital will have a potentially harmful effect on the patients. I question whether it has been fully thought out.

Jean Sellar-Edmunds, Tudor Road, Acomb, York

 

I KNOW staff and service users cannot be in an unsafe environment but how can the CQC close Bootham Park Hospital so quickly?

This is causing upheaval and distress for staff and service users.

Staff are not able to do their jobs properly because of stress and more than likely not able to allay service users’ fears of where they may end up, more than likely out of area with more expense. It will set them back years.

I have a photograph of Bootham Park from 1988 saying health bosses in York were planning to build a new purpose-built mental hospital.

What has happened in the intervening years? Why haven’t they got on with modifications? Prior to the visit by the CQC in late 2014, which was announced, when was the previous CQC inspection?

Were primary care trusts subject to the same inspections? If not, why not? The ligature points must have been in the building for years.

Julia Rowan, Strensall, York 

 

IT is a tragedy that the ruinous reorganisations of the NHS, and the frequent changes of Primary Care Trust management teams, have resulted in the abrupt closure of Bootham Park Hospital.

When I was a patient there for eight weeks 30 years ago the hospital was world class.

Since I was too ill to know that I was ill, I was committed under a section.

The then acute unit, ward eight, was not located in the 18th century building.

It comprised single bedrooms, common room, dining room, and a small kitchen where patients prepared their breakfast. Patients who were on the mend helped newly arrived ones.

It was a mixed-sex ward: this, and the fact that the nurses did not wear uniform, helped to create a non-institutional ambience. The staff treated us with respect at all times.

Conversation over meals was lively. When politics was under discussion, we joked that we were the sane people. I owe my recovery and subsequent good health to the outstanding care provided by Bootham Park Hospital.

I am sad and angry that it is no longer available to the people of York.

Mary Machen, Main Street, Fulford, York

 

AFTER days when the closure of Bootham Park Hospital has featured in The Press it beggars belief that a meeting on October 1 of the health organisation responsible for mental health services in York chose not to discuss it.

It would not have been unreasonable to expect an emergency statement from the chairman to explain what went wrong or for the governor with specific responsibilities for mental health services to tell us what she did.

But not a word.

It was as though nothing had happened. What a disgrace.

The call by the MP for York Central, Rachael Maskell, for an independent inquiry is fully justified.

Bob Towner, Chair York Older People’s Assembly, Hobgate, York

 

WITH reference to the recent inspection of Bootham Park Hospital and discovery that internal repairs had not been addressed.

Having made their findings known by a previous inspection and failed in their duty, the inspectorate had no choice but to close wards affected on grounds of health and safety otherwise damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario.

However, considering the fabric of this historical landmark has served those with special needs for generations, surely the powers that be acting in tandem could remedy this important asset in financial terms.

As for priorities what is more important, spending public money on a makeover of the Mansion House, plus regalia, or the welfare of its citizens considering care homes is under scrutiny?

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York

 

AT a meeting about the closure of Bootham Park Hospital, arranged by local MP Rachael Maskell, she banned the media from attending (The Press, October 2).

How does this square with Jeremy Corbyn’s new brand of openness?

Geoff Robb, Dunnington, York