York MP calls for inquiry over Bootham Park Hospital closure ‘scandal’

Bootham Park Hospital closed its doors on Wednesday night, with its 25 vulnerable inpatients relocated to other sites, after being ordered to close following an unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

With little prospect of its re-opening in the near future, the prospects for the 300 staff working at the hospital are now unclear and the 400 patients who used the 18th century site on an outpatient basis will be seen elsewhere in the city.

The closure came nine months after the CQC called for significant improvements following an inspection in January that said the site was not fit for purpose and reported a number of ligature points where patients could take their own lives.

A follow-up inspection early last month revealed what the CQC described as “some very serious environmental risks to patients on the older adults ward, excessive water temperatures, a lack of call alarms for patients, insufficient staffing numbers and poor hygiene and infection control.”

The watchdog announced last Friday that the hospital was to close after ruling that people at the hospital were at “significant risk of harm”.

Of the inpatients in the emergency admission wards at Bootham at the time of the closure, eight have been transferred 50 miles away to Middlesbrough and 15 patients discharged to home treatment.

York Central MP Rachael Maskell has now called for an independent inquiry into the circumstances behind the last-minute closure, which she described as a “national scandal”.

She said reforms made as part of the Government’s 2012 Health and Social Care Act, which remove the Secretary of State’s duty to provide health services through the NHS, had created risks for patients.

Ms Maskell said the conflicting interests and politicisation of the system, created by measures including the introduction of greater competition into the NHS, had “manufactured” a situation where the hospital was still unsafe nine months after the initial inspection.

Until Wednesday services at Bootham Park had been provided by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LYPFT), but earlier this year Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust won the five-year contract to run services in the Vale of York from October 1.

LYPFT has since written to health regulator Monitor detailing a series of concerns over how it narrowly lost the contract and called for the transfer of services to be suspended.

Yesterday, LYPFT and the local clinical commissioning group, which pays for and plans services, were blaming each other for the delays in making improvements.

A plan had been created to carry out the CQC’s recommendations and involved a number of bodies, including NHS Property Services, which owns the estate, NHS England, which oversees the commissioning groups, and English Heritage, who are involved because of the age of the building.

Ms Maskell said she had spoken to a Government health minister and called for an independent inquiry into the fiasco.

She said: “There absolutely has to be an independent investigation and I won’t take my foot off the accelerator in pushing for that.

“There should be someone who is ensuring the swift implementation of CQC recommendations, if there are barriers they should be taken away.

“The problem we have got in the wider NHS is that there is a huge plethora of bodies involved in decision-making.

“When it comes to the transfer issue it is clear there is no-one with responsibility for ensuring there is a continuum with the outcome of ensuring patient care.”

A public meeting about the closure organised by Ms Maskell was due to take place this afternoon, but local media were told they would not be allowed to attend.

A petition, signed by nearly 3,000 people, is asking for the closure of the hospital to be stopped and a refurbishment funded.

It was confirmed today that Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys trust had taken over the contract for mental health and learning disability services in the Vale of York, including Bootham Park Hospital.

Chief Executive, Martin Barkley, said: “Since the CQC announced their decision we have been supporting our colleagues at LYPFT to make sure people in the Vale of York continue to receive the mental health care and treatment they need, when they need it.

“This remains our immediate priority and unfortunately this means that some people will need to be admitted to hospitals or receive their treatment outside of York.

“This is far from ideal and we will do all we can to minimise the impact on service users, their families and staff.

“Our ultimate aim is to provide services locally for the people of the Vale of York and we will now work at pace and with purpose to achieve this.

“We are looking at all possible options and working hard to find a solution that will enable us to transfer services back to York as soon as possible.

“This will include working closely with a whole range of people and partner organisations as well as staff, service users and carers.”

A spokesperson for NHS Property Services said: “As stated by CQC, significant work has been undertaken to attempt to improve the premises, with a tri-party improvement plan for Bootham Park and York mental health services signed up to by the Vale of York CCG, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Property Services.

“We are aware of the recommendations made to Leeds and York Partnership NHS Trust by the CQC and have supported the safe relocation of patients and services. The site will now be made secure where needed and will remain in our property portfolio unless commissioners declare the site surplus to NHS requirements.

“We fully recognise the frustrations of patients, their families and carers, and NHS partners, and the desire of the local community to see facilities improved for the delivery of mental health services in York. We understand that there are remaining issues to resolve and will work as property professionals to support local NHS partners.”