WIDESPREAD fears have been raised over the capacity of York’s planned new mental health hospital.

A public consultation on where the replacement for Bootham Park Hospital should be and how many beds it should have has drawn 387 responses.

Most believe it should go on the Bootham site – but more than half said they do not believe the number of planned beds is enough for a growing population, a report has shown.

The old Bootham Park hospital had to be closed in 2015 over safety concerns – resulting in some of the patients having to be transferred to hospitals in the North-East.

Health bosses have suggested the new hospital, which is due to open by December 2019, should have 60 beds – which is ten fewer than the Vale of York currently has.

There are currently 70 mental health beds in York – 24 general adult beds and 46 for older people including dementia patients – but new plans based on a nationally used calculation suggest 30 general beds for adults and 30 for older people. This would mean a cut of 13 specialist dementia places.

A report into the consultation exercise said: “Several comments reflected upon the demographics of an increasingly elderly population and questioned whether there would be enough beds to accommodate the predicted ageing profile of the population.”