Bootham Park Hospital


Bootham Park Hospital was a psychiatric hospital, located in the Bootham district of York, England. It was managed by the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation NHS Trust. The main building is a Grade I listed building.

History

Construction and operation

In 1772, Robert Hay Drummond, the Archbishop of York, decided along with "twenty-four Yorkshire gentlemen" to establish an asylum, to be known as the "County Lunatic Asylum, York". A committee was established, and the architect John Carr was co-opted with a pledge of 25 guineas. Carr's patron, the Marquis of Rockingham, pledged 100 guineas, and a total of £2,500 was subscribed. By July 1773, £5,000 had been promised, and Carr's scheme to accommodate 54 patients was approved on 25 August. The building was completed in 1777.
Following criticism about the handling of inmates at the asylum and the death of Hannah Mills, who was a Quaker, led the local Quaker community to found a new asylum known as The Retreat in 1790. The asylum became Bootham Park Hospital in 1904 and it joined the National Health Service in 1948.

Closure

In late September 2015 the hospital building was declared unfit by the Care Quality Commission, and ordered to close by the end of the month. Staff were given 5 days notice to close the building. The hospital was closed on 1 October 2015, having been declared unfit for purpose. On the same day Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation NHS Trust replaced Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust as the provider of most mental health services in York. Patients were transferred suddenly to other premises, some quite distant.
An independent report commissioned by City of York Council from John Ransford concluded:
A smaller unit 24 bedded unit opened in 2016 replacing the 36 beds from Bootham Park Hospital. Outpatient clinics also reopened in February 2016.