Children's move from Dix to be complete by June

The Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that it plans to relocate the remaining children and adolescents at Dorothea Dix Hospital to a new state mental hospital by the end of June.

The state began transferring them in October, more than a year after the $130 million Central Regional Hospital opened in Butner.

Eventually, the hospital will house all patients from Dix, which is in Raleigh, and John Umstead Hospital, which is in Butner.

Once the move is complete, the state will save about $500,000 a month, DHHS officials have estimated.

Dix will stay open for the time being as an overflow unit because of an overall shortage of patient beds. It's unclear how long it will remain open, but it could close by 2012, DHHS officials have said.