The Canterbury District Health Board says Christchurch's Princess Margaret Hospital is substandard and may be closed.
Chief executive David Meates says the DHB is considering moving the 120 beds allocated to older people at Princess Margaret to Burwood Hospital.
He says the bathrooms at Princess Margaret, which was built in the 1950s, may be contributing to the hospital's norovirus problem.
Mr Meates says that if the elderly patients' beds are moved, a decision on the future of the other services provided at Princess Margaret will be made over the next couple of years.
