Call to reopen York's Bootham Park psychiatric hospital

The trust in charge of mental health wants to reopen Bootham Park for outpatient services

A mental health trust is to ask inspectors to let it reopen a psychiatric hospital which was closed amid fears over patient safety.

Bootham Park hospital in York was ordered to be closed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) last week.

The Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust said it wanted to reopen the 18th century hospital for the treatment of outpatients.

Inpatients have either been discharged or transferred to other hospitals.

The Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust was given five days notice to close the grade-I listed building by 30 September.

'Unprecedented' action

The Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust took over mental health services in the Vale of York on 1 October.

Chief executive, Martin Barkley, said he had been shocked at the speed with which the CQC had acted.

"These actions are to my knowledge absolutely unprecedented."

The hospital was built in 1777 and its design and layout was viewed as unsafe and unsuitable by inspectors

Mr Barkley said he believed it was possible to treat outpatients safely at Bootham Park and would be asking the CQC's permission to do so.

"The previous reports and all the evidence has been about the safety concerns of inpatient services," he said.

"I have visited Bootham Park to see for myself all the non-inpatient facilities and I can see no reason why we can't operate those safely."

He said the trust was looking at a better interim solution for inpatients, some of whom have been transferred to hospital in Middlesbrough.

He said the long-term aim of the trust and its partners, including the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group, was to build a new psychiatric hospital in the area by 2019.

In a statement, the CQC said it had asked the trust to set out how it intended to "mitigate risks" for out-patients.

The CQC added: "Once this information is received, it will be assessed accordingly before a decision is reached.

"We will consider any reasonable submission, but no services will be registered where there is a risk to patient safety."