Building a home for PET scanner could cost HSN about $1.5M

Health Sciences North would need to invest around $1.5 million to build a space that could safely house a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, says the hospital's vice-president of regional cancer services and medical imaging.

In December 2015, Ontario's health minister, Dr. Eric Hoskins, announced the province would provide $1.6 million per year to cover the operational costs for a PET scanner at Health Sciences North.

But as with all large hospital purchases, the province will not purchase the scanner – the cost of which hovers around the $3.5 million range – nor cover the cost of building a space to house the expensive machine. That means the hospital needs to raise at least $5 million before it can have a PET scanner.

Because PET scans emit radioactive gamma rays, the room, likely to be attached to the Northeast Cancer Centre, would need walls reinforced with at least 37 centimetres of concrete.

“My guess would be that at the very best, we’re probably looking at a year of work before we would have that space ready,” said Mark Hartman, Health Sciences North's vice-president of regional cancer services and medical imaging.

Hartman said the hospital has already had meetings with an architecture firm and designers to plan for the space.

To date, the Sam Bruno PET Scanner Fund Committee, established to raise funds for the PET scanner in conjunction with the Northern Cancer Foundation, has raised more than $1 million to purchase the machine.

In early February, Greater Sudbury city council committed $1 million, in the amount of $100,000 per year, over 10 years, to help pay for a PET scanner.

The northeast is the only region in Ontario without a PET scanner, which would allow oncologists to detect certain types of cancer earlier — and better manage patients treatment plans.

In 2013, there were around 570 PET scans done on people who live in the northeast. These were primarily in Ottawa and Toronto. Hartman said that number is likely close to 700 today.

The province’s operational funding would allow the hospital to conduct around 1,000 PET scans per year. But before even a single scan, the hospital needs the capital funds to bring a machine to Sudbury.

To donate to the Sam Bruno PET Scanner Fund click here.

Check out the March issue of the "Northern Ontario Medical Journal" for an in-depth story on the fund's history and the ongoing struggle to get Health Sciences North a PET scanner.