Health chiefs have insisted the new £2.4m staff accommodation at the hospital will not be under-utilised - despite a planning condition stating it can only be used by those employed at the Noble’s site.

All staff have now been moved from the old Nurses Home on Westmoreland Road which closed for good on November 3, with the last resident leaving two days earlier.

Its replacement has opened on the Noble’s Hospital estate. But the accommodation can only currently be used by people working on the Noble’s Hospital estate.

Tynwald approved funding of £2,482,000 for its replacement on the Noble’s estate in July last year.

It has 56 rooms, seven houses of eight beds each. The majority are now occupied, with many prepared for incoming bookings.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ’This restriction is a result of the original planning application decision, which stated accommodation may be used ’only by those employed at Noble’s Hospital or any other government health facility adjacent to Noble’s Hospital site. An application will be made to alter the conditions of residency.’

The old Nurses Home opened in 1951 and at the time of its closure, a total of 44 rooms were being used.

There were a total of four social workers who did not meet the necessary criteria to move to the new block, the DHSC spokesman confirmed.

Two have since been rehoused in DHSC accommodation near the Noble’s Hospital estate and two have chosen to go into private accommodation.

’The new buildings will not lie empty or be under-utilised, and all the former residents of Westmoreland Road nurses home have been rehoused,’ the spokesman insisted.

There is considerable turnover as staff visiting to provide temporary cover or for training purposes can stay from a few weeks to a number of months. The project is likely to come in under its £2.4m budget.

Health chiefs said the old Nurses Home fell short of modern standards and had reached the end of its operational life. Continued long-term use would have needed substantial investment that did not represent value for money, they said - and new facilities would help recruit vitally needed health and social care professionals to the island.

Following its closure, the old Nurses Home and two other properties in Douglas, with a combined value of £1.8m, will be put up for sale in line with a Treasury agreement.