A £3.5m hospital extension has been handed over to a health authority after contractors finished work on it.

Contractor Kendall Cross Holdings has been working on a three-storey fracture clinic at Sunderland Royal Hospital since January last year.

In addition to the ground floor clinic, which includes five examination suites of five rooms each, plaster and dressing rooms, the building contains 29 bedrooms with en-suite showers, for medical staff, on its third floor.

Administration offices occupy the second floor of the extension, which is due to open later this year.

Site agent Ian Howmans said completion within budget and schedule was a tribute to the efforts of the construction team.

He said: "As a stand-alone building, it's a fairly straightforward steel frame with brick infill of three floors of around 960 square metres each, with a central courtyard and highly serviced ground and third floors.

"What made it a particularly interesting project was the fact that there were existing buildings to three of the elevations, and emergency vehicle access to the fourth.

"As we were in a working hospital environment, our priority was its smooth day-to-day running, especially the accident and emergency depart- ment next door.

"I'm pleased to report that in the 70-week contract, we never once interrupted the emergency services provided by the hospital," said Mr Howmans.

Fred Cosgrove, director of the project's quantity surveyor, Hall and Partners, said: "It's been a very successful project in which the whole team has taken a great deal of pride."