Dix employees will lose jobs when patient move is complete

Employees of Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh received notice Wednesday that about 300 positions will be eliminated with the planned move of patients from the downtown Raleigh mental hospital to the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services plans to move about 100 patients by the beginning of next year. Dix employs about 800 people full-time. That number will be reduced to fewer than 500, according to Renee McCoy, department spokeswoman.

Current Dix employees will be eligible to apply for positions at the Butner location, she said. The number of jobs at the new hospital was not clear.

Over time, the state plans for Central Regional to replace both Dorothea Dix and John Umstead Hospital, which is also in Butner.

Because of an overall shortage of patient beds, Dix will stay open for at least three more years as an overflow unit and to house children and adolescents in need of long-term care.