Scanner up and running for public patients

From today, public cancer patients in the south will be able to use a €3.8m PET/CT scanner at Cork University Hospital — but private patients will still be forced to travel to Dublin, Galway, or Waterford.

Negotiations between private health insurers, VHI, Laya Healthcare, and the HSE had not reached agreement in time for today’s opening of the super scanning machine.

The scanner will only be available to public patients two days a week due to budgetary constraints. The hospital’s radiology budget has not been increased because the long-awaited PET scanner is operational.