The Ontario Ministry of Health has approved plans for the next stage of building the PET scanner at Health Sciences North, a source told Sudbury.com Friday.

A letter sent to HSN says the ministry has reviewed the hospital’s Stage 3 plans for the scanner, and has given them permission to move on to Stage 4.

Stage 4 involves work drawings and specifications for the facility that must be built to house the scanner. It will be housed in the Nuclear Imaging Department, located on Level 2 of the hospital’s Lougheed (South) Tower.

Local fundraising efforts have raised the $3.5 million needed to buy the scanner, and the province has pledged the $1.6 million needed in annual operating funding.

The province has also promised to pay $4.6 million for the construction of the PET scanner suite. The 3,800 square-foot building will require extra thick – at least 37 cm – concrete walls to prevent radiation from leaking into other parts of the hospital and will be built on stilts.

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