Work starts on £14 million hospital development to transform cancer diagnoses

Work has started on a £14 million development at a major south Wales hospital that will transform the diagnosis of cancer and other conditions in the region.

Highly specialised PET-CT scanning was introduced at Singleton Hospital in 2020, avoiding the need for people from the Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda areas having to travel to Cardiff.

A PET-CT scan combines computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans. It can reveal cancer and some other diseases which may not show up on other types of scans.

Its accuracy means it can diagnose cancer, find out how big a cancer is and whether it has spread.

It can also show how well a cancer has responded to treatment and whether it has come back – and, if so, exactly where it is.

However, the Singleton scanner is on a mobile unit which has limited the range of services and operating days.

Static scanners

Swansea Bay’s Head of Nuclear Medicine, Professor Neil Hartman, said the new building would make a significant difference to patient care.

“For the first time we will be able to do paediatric PET scanning,” he said.

“We will be able to do scanning under general anaesthetic and brain scanning, which we are not able to do at the moment. And we will be able to do seven day a week scanning, if we so wish.”

Capital funding has been provided by the Welsh Government under its all-Wales PET-CT programme.

This aims to develop four static PET-CT scanners across Wales within the next 10 years. One each will be in the cancer centres in Swansea, Velindre and North Wales, with the location of the fourth to be decided.

Tilbury Douglas has been appointed contractor for the Singleton build, which will take until the autumn of next year to complete.

That will be followed by the installation of equipment, with the first patients expected to be scanned there in early 2027.

The building is at the north end of the hospital site, alongside the university and Singleton Park boundaries. It had to be carefully designed to avoid impacting on services and well-established trees.

It will include six uptake rooms where patients can be prepared before being scanned. There will also be a room for general anaesthesia.

All the clinical and supporting areas, including a dedicated waiting and post-screening area, have been designed to provide as safe and as comfortable an environment as possible.

This development is seen as a key part of the health board’s programme of investment in care.

Capacity and capability 

Swansea Bay University Health Board Chair, Jan Williams, said she and Hywel Dda Chair Neil Wooding were both delighted to see work starting.

“This is an exciting development which is much needed for the population of South West Wales,” she said.

“It will give the expert staff who provide such excellent care the opportunity to enhance their service even further. Both Neil and I look forward to seeing the plans take shape!”

Swansea Bay’s Director of Allied Health Professionals and Health Science, Christine Morrell, said everyone from the various agencies and organisations involved had been fully committed to the project.

“Our capacity and capability on the mobile unit were not giving us what we needed in terms of the population,” she added.

“We are looking forward to it being built and to being able to expand our services.”