AN MP has called on the Government to launch an inquiry over the sudden closure of a mental health hospital after inspectors deemed it unsafe.

York Central MP Rachel Maskell has called on Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt to launch an independent inquiry into the city’s Bootham Park Hospital “to ensure patient safety can never be put at risk again”.

The facility was closed with four working days’ notice after the Care Quality Commission found recommendations it had made several months earlier to improve safety and maintenance had not been carried out.

The Vale of York Clinical Commission Group (CCG) had spent nearly £2m on improvements at the 18th century hospital, including removing ligature points and improving the water hygiene system. But a recent inspection found there was still serious risk to patients.

Some of Bootham’s patients have been transferred to inpatient services at Roseberry Park in Middlesbrough, 45 miles away. About 15 patients have been discharged to home treatment, while the rest relocated to other facilities in the city.

The York MP Ms Maskell says health reforms under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 has resulted in a cumbersome, complex system involving commissioners, providers, regulators and infrastructure bodies overseeing facilities such as Bootham. She said this meant nine months passed before essential suicide prevention work could be carried out.

Among the organisations involved in making the improvements outlined by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS England, NHS property services and Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The closure also means a loss of York’s place of safety for people experiencing a mental health crisis, which opened in February last year with £400,000 from the Vale of York CCG.

Places of safety, or Section 136 suites, enable police to detain people experiencing a mental health crisis for up to 72 hours for their own, or another person’s, safety and in a place where they can access help. Without them, police have to hold them in a police cell.

Julia Mulligan, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, said it was a “real blow” to people who may need it and for those who put time and effort into getting the service available in York.

She said the Section 136 suite in Harrogate will now become the first port of call, followed by facilities at Northallerton and Scarborough. York’s Street Triage service, where mental health nurses and police attend incidents together, will become a 24-hour service.

Chris Butler, chief executive of the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for running mental health services at the hospital, said in a statement: "I would like to sincerely apologise for the distress and anxiety that this situation is causing for patients, their families and carers.

"We have been working round the clock to ensure that good quality safe care is in place for all those who would normally access services at Bootham Park Hospital.”