A COMPANY which says it could build a prefabricated ward block in just three months, is offering its help to an under-pressure North-East hospital.

Bosses at the Middlesbrough-based Marske Machine Company (MMC), which is winning orders all over the UK for its prefabricated health care buildings, believe they could provide a quick solution.

The University Hospital of North Durham is desperate to increase its capacity after opening last year with too few beds.

Recently, officials at the North Durham Health Care NHS Trust said they were considering housing patients in portable buildings until a permanent extension could be built.

Backed by ten years of experience in the off-shore industry, MMC has built prefab operating theatre buildings for St George's Hospital, in south London and in Monaghan, Ireland.

Before that, the company built mobile battlefield operating theatres for the Ministry of Defence.

Now the Teesside company is branching out into sturdy ward blocks, which can be ready in months and last for at least 25 years. MMC recently signed a contract to build a 60-bed prefabricated ward block at Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Managing director John McCullagh, who has written to the North Durham trust offering his firm's services, said their approach combined speed with durability.

"We could probably provide a 30-bed ward block within three months of a contract being signed. A 60-bed block would take a bit longer," said Mr McCullagh.

The prefab buildings are put together in a large workshop once used to build living modules for North Sea rigs, and then fitted out in a clean environment.

Business is booming - with orders for more than 25 prefabricated operating theatre units - but so far there has been little interest from North-East hospitals.

"The NHS has a capacity problem. We have a solution," said Mr McCullagh, who recently asked Hartlepool MP Peter Mandelson to pass on a video about MMC to Health Secretary Alan Milburn.

The private company employs 220 people, but more orders for health care buildings could provide work for another 50 people.

"All we need is a bit of space next to or above a building and we can put in one of our units," said Mr McCullagh.