Hilda Ross House manager Donna Craig-Brown holds a picture of what the house looked like 50 years ago.

A hospital building that housed hundreds of thousands of people over the past 50 years, will shut its doors for the last time this week, after being deemed as earthquake prone.

The Hilda Ross House at Waikato Hospital, opened in 1963 and was initially a home for student nurses. In 1993, it was used as accommodation for hospital patients and their families and doctors training on site.

Waikato DHB's Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Sue Hayward, said in the 1960s it was compulsory for nurse students to live in nurses homes.

"We would come home after every shift and there would be a group of us to talk about our day," said Hayward.

"We were given early night passes and we were only allowed one late night pass a week.

"I think we were kept safe from the whole of society and I'm not quiet sure why, but we were. If only the walls could talk."

Hayward said she lived in the nurses home in the late 1980s.

"There was still the comradeship, so I think [those that lived at Hilda Ross] actually benefited from it," she said.

"Although it was a joy when I got my parents to sign on the dotted line and give me permission that I had to present to the matron to allow me to go flatting."

Since the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, all district health boards must assess their buildings and determine if they are safe.

A building is deemed "earthquake prone" if it is less than 33 per cent as strong as an equivalent building built today.

The Hilda Ross Building has been assessed and rated at just 15 per cent on this scale.

Waikato DHB project manager Julie Law said there will be a new building to replace Hilda Ross House, although it is not yet known where on the hospital campus it will be built.

She said Ronald McDonald House Charities have expressed interest in occupying the new site.

Hilda Ross House manager Donna Craig-Graham said she estimated about 137,000 patients stayed at the house in the past 15 years and about 200,000 since 1993.

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Hilda Ross House training home to be demolished

In a previous article, Waikato Hospital building project manager Ian Wolstencroft said the demolition will take about a year to complete.

The building housed 11 services, 10 of which have moved to other buildings on the hospital campus.

"About 130 beds that will be lost when Hilda Ross shuts down," said Wolstencroft.

"We will not be replacing the low-cost accommodation, that will be contracted out to third parties and we are currently looking at external providers to provide that service."

*The closure of Hilda Ross House means accommodation will no longer be offered on site, but there are other short-term, low cost accommodation for people who are supporting seriously ill patients at the hospital. Information is available at www.waikatodhb.health.nz and click on patient and visitors site and then accommodation nearby.