TWENTY-SIX student nurses have been given notice to quit their accommodation at Hereford County Hospital.

Nineteen other staff, including doctors, will soon receive the same marching orders.

The 50-year-old Lionel Green Home has been judged not up to standard under the Housing Act (1985) and Hereford Hospitals Trust has been served with an enforcement notice to carry out improvements if it continues to be used by residents.

The work, including fire escapes, alarm systems and six new kitchens, is expected to cost £100,000.

The trust says it does not have the money and it is likely the three storey building, at the back of the County Hospital complex, will remain empty until cash becomes available, but not before next year.

The trust's chief executive David Rose said it was impossible to commit £100,000 to an upgrade of the building this year when it was faced with the challenge of maintaining and improving front line patient services in the hospital.

The student nurses had the notices to quit in letters put under the door of their rooms on January 5. They say they are shocked and have nowhere to go. They are not in a position to pay private rents in Hereford from their £460-a-month salaries.

Most of the students, at different stages of their three years of training, come from outside Herefordshire and some from abroad.

"We are still trying to carry on with our work and studies, but this has caused a lot of stress and worry and some are saying they might have to give it all up," said one young nurse, who asked to remain anonymous.

The nurses are the first to receive notices to quit because the trust is under no obligation to find them accommodation on the premises. The other 19 residents, mostly doctors who are expected to be on call when needed, will be re-housed somewhere in the newer part of the hospital as soon as possible.

Herefordshire Council and Hereford and Worcester Fire Brigade inspected the building last summer and advised the trust it was considering enforcement action under the 1985 Act. Before this the trust did not believe it was governed by the Act.

Now the enforcement notice has been served and the trust has no alternative but to act. "In this case we are being treated as a landlord, and not as a service provider," said Mr Rose.

Some necessary fire precaution work had been carried out but the hospital could not afford the cost of improvements now, he said.

Mr Rose said everything possible would be done to help the nurses and he hoped all would be settled by March.

The trust was selling two properties to a housing association for multiple occupancy and Sue Fiennes and Herefordshire Council's strategic housing director's enabling team would give assistance.

The student nurses do their theory at University College Worcester, travelling from Hereford by bus, and most of their practical work at the County Hospital. They are seeking help from the union UNISON whose representative Sylvia Daniels is in talks with the management.