THE final death knell has sounded for St Christopher's Hospital in Fareham.

The doomed 170-year-old building in Wickham Road will close to inpatients by the end of October.

Health chiefs have announced that the hospital's last remaining ward, which houses about 25 frail and elderly patients, will close as soon as replacement beds are found elsewhere.

A report into conditions found that the three-storey building is no longer suitable for treating patients.

Parts of it are inaccessible because corridors and doorways are too narrow. Other flaws include limited bathing facilities, steep stairways and lack of patient privacy.

St Christopher's is to be replaced once a shake-up of NHS services in Fareham and Gosport is complete, but patients will be temporarily housed elsewhere - mainly at care homes around Fareham and Gosport.

A structural report found that the building is only suitable for the next two years in its current state.

Outpatients' services and offices will remain at St Christopher's until then.

Inger Hebden, Fareham and Gosport Primary Care Trust's director of strategic development, said: "The building itself is not particularly healthy.

"We're making it as safe as we can to ensure those people can carry on working there for the next year or two."

The hospital can cater for up to 60 patients who are mostly elderly and in need of 24-hour care.

It provides nursing care beds as well as a stroke rehabilitation ward, a physiotherapy service, and a day-care facility for people with mental health problems.

All day services for outpatients, which include physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and a day centre, will continue in the building, which is being patched up temporarily.

It will also continue to provide office accommodation for 91 people.

The PCT has said that St Christopher's must be replaced by 2006.