PORTABLE building specialist Yorkon has won a £1.7m contract to extend a London hospital.

The Portakabin subsidiary will provide a new emergency medicine centre at Whipps Cross University Hospital in East London.

The single storey extension adjoining the existing accident and emergency department will provide 30 new beds in a mix of six-bed, four-bed and single en-suite rooms.

Facilities will include blood, gas and ultrasound units, offices and shower room for disabled people.

Work is due to be completed in early spring this year.

The project is seen as key to enabling the hospital to meet Government targets for reducing the time patients have to spend on trolleys to no more than four hours.

The building will be manufactured off-site at Yorkon's production centre in York and craned into position as 24-steel-framed modules over a four-day period.

Reg Hollis, head of building and engineering services at the hospital, said: "Speed of construction is critical for this project. The new facility will be used by patients in the emergency medicine centre for up to 24 hours before they are either discharged or admitted to a hospital ward.

"Off-site construction is much faster than traditional site-based building methods."