A HANBURY marquee company wants to help ease the burden on the NHS by offering to build makeshift hospitals for use during the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Fews Marquees, based on Chessgrove Park, Ditchford Bank Road, says its structures – which it says could be built within days – could be of multiple uses.

In addition to hospitals, the firm says it could provide triage areas, medical facilities, quarantine areas, temporary morgues, temporary offices and storage areas.

Ian Few, managing director of Fews Marquees Ltd said: “Our business usually provides premium marquee structures for events, and we also have structures for warehousing, retail and even accommodation.

“The events industry work has completely vanished with this pandemic, so we have a yard full of stock, vehicles and teams to be deployed at a moment’s notice.

“We can do a full fit out, including the choice of non-slip floor coverings, water supply, electricity, lighting, toilets, heating and air conditioning.”

“The team are working hard contacting as many people as possible. We feel if we can get this message out there, NHS hospitals and local authorities will get in touch to see if we can help.”

The firm usually caters for corporate or commercial clients, as well as for events such as weddings or parties but the COVID-19 outbreak has decimated its business.

Mr Few added: “We genuinely feel we can assist the NHS in the current crisis. We have all our resources ready to go, as there is currently no events industry to service.

“We can initiate in as little as 24 hours, and the final build will be in days rather than weeks.”

He added that the cost of such a scheme was difficult to estimate because each structure would be unique in terms of size and specifications.

But he vowed: “We are trying to keep the costs down. Our main aim is to keep our employees and we feel our structures are perfectly designed to help. 

“We offer free quotations and will make these enquiries our priority.”