The hospital (has closed / has been closed)

Question

How to know exactly whether I have to add "been" when I use present perfect?

For example:

The Victoria Hospital in Miltown ___ (1. close) to new patients after more cases of food poisoning. Three elderly patients __ (2. die) last week in the outbreak.

The instruction in my book suggests me to use present perfect or past tense. I'm sure 2. died, but the answer of 1. confuses me. Is it has closed or has been closed? Or are both correct?

I expect you'll explain when we use has + been + verb and when we use has + verb and their difference. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

1 The Victoria Hospital in Miltown has been closed to new patients after more cases of food poisoning.

This suggests that the closure was imposed by some external authority or decision maker, perhaps a government regulator. It might be the hospital's own decision, but still the implication is that the decision was somehow imposed. This also sugests a sense of duration to the closure.

2 The Victoria Hospital in Miltown has closed to new patients after more cases of food poisoning.

This does not carry the sense of an imposed closure, and is more likely to go along with an internal decision.

In any case where 1 could be used, 2 would also be valid. The implications I mentioned for 1 are not absolute, and it could be used when they are not intended.