A rehabilitation at Whiteabbey Hospital is set to close this year due to funding pressures.
The Whiteabbey Nightingale Enhanced Therapies and Rehabilitation Unit was first opened in November 2020 to provide a regional post-Covid step down service.
The "successful" 23 bed unit has since transitioned to become a regional fractures and general rehabilitation facility.
Funding was allocated by the Department of Health until the end of the financial year, and the Northern Trust said the unit has been "operating successfully as such," with evidence of "strong outcomes" and an average length of stay consistently below 14 days.
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However, the Trust said "reflecting wider budgetary pressures, no recurrent funding source has been identified beyond the end of March 2023."
The Northern Trust has said it will meet with staff to consider alternative employment either on the Whiteabbey Hospital site or elsewhere within the Trust area.
The unit will be wound down on a phased basis, with final closure at the end of March 2023.
A statement from the Northern Trust added: "The NHSCT was honoured to host this regional service which was commissioned and funded by the DoH and we are proud of the outcomes achieved for the patients who availed of this service.
“Community beds are a vital part of our patient journey in that they afford the opportunity for patients to avail of a period of assessment or rehabilitation in bed-based facilities to maximise their personal abilities, often following a period of acute hospitalisation.
“Over the past few months we have been working up a long-term community bed model and we plan to go out to formal public consultation on this model early in the next financial year.
"We are committed to maintaining inpatient rehabilitation on the Whiteabbey site, and this will form part of the overarching community bed model."
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