A building which has been a haven for travelling patients and their family has said goodbye to its last guest.

Located in the heart of the Waikato Hospital campus, Hilda Ross House has heard the laughs and cries of more than 200,000 people as they came through the doors over the past 50 years.

Hilda Ross House manager Donna Craig-Brown says more than 200,000 people used the building for accommodation over the past 50 years. Photo: Waikato DHB

Earlier this year the health board deemed the building an earthquake risk, despite it only registering 15 per cent on the scale, due to its proximity to other parts of the hospital including the new acute services building which houses emergency department and acute wards.

Waikato District Health Board director of business Melinda Ch'ng says it was sad to see staff and patients leave the building for the final time.

'If only the walls could talk, the stories this place could tell,” Melinda reflects warmly. 'It is very sad to see this building go, it has the soul of the hospital inside it.”

Opened in 1963, Hilda House originally housed student nurses during their practicum, then in 1993 it became onsite accommodation for families, patients and training doctors at Waikato Hospital.

For the last 15 years Hilda Ross House manager Donna Craig-Brown has run the accommodation house and says it's been a place of support to many over the years.

'It has given back what it's been given. We have had over 200,000 people walk through those doors and given them a moment of solace when they needed it,” explains Donna.

'It was a place for all types of people from mum's with babies in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, to out-of-town renal patients, to the doctors and nursing staff who have done their training here.”

Limited low-cost accommodation will be available onsite for people who are supporting seriously ill patients at the hospital, with the health board making arrangements with local lodges and motels to ensure eligible patients and their support person have access to accommodation.

What might appear in Hilda Ross House's place is unknown, but director of nursing and midwifery Sue Hayward says she believes whatever comes will be built on the future of what stood before.

'The spirit of the hospital has always come oozing out of the conversations housed inside Hilda Ross House.”

Deconstruction of Hilda House begins this month and take up to a year to complete.