A CONSTRUCTION company which puts together buildings in its factory before transporting them to a building site has completed the design and building of a £2.3m cardiac centre for a hospital.

Yorkon, the York-based subsidiary of Portakabin, completed the build in seven months from the start of work on site, reducing the programme time by 30 per cent compared to conventional building methods.

The single-storey centre, to fit on to a hospital in Hertfordshire, was manufactured off-site at the company's production centre in York and craned into position ready for fitting out and installation of the latest medical scanning technology.

In its first year, the unit expects to care for 1,500 people, improving waiting times for patients and allowing East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust to quadruple capacity.

Until the facility opened, patients requiring specialist cardiac diagnostic procedures had to travel to London or use an ageing mobile unit that visited the hospital once a week.

Keith Blanshard, of Yorkon, said: "The logistics of constructing a building so close to other busy hospital departments, including paediatrics, A&E and outpatients, had to be addressed as part of the project, ensuring the highest levels of safety, privacy and security. The speed of the modular approach limited the time on site."