New home for PET‑CT scanning
Since 2020, highly specialised PET‑CT scanning has been available at Singleton, sparing patients in the Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda health board areas from travelling to Cardiff.
A PET‑CT scan combines computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) to provide highly detailed images. It can detect cancers and other diseases that may not appear on other scans, assess the size and spread of tumours, and show how well treatment is working.
Until now, the service has been delivered from a mobile unit, limiting the range of scans and the number of days it can operate.
(Image: Swansea Bay University Health Board)
Expanded services and seven‑day scanning
The new purpose‑built facility, funded by the Welsh Government as part of its all‑Wales PET‑CT programme, will allow Singleton to expand its services significantly.
Professor Neil Hartman, Swansea Bay’s Head of Nuclear Medicine, said:
“For the first time we will be able to do paediatric PET scanning. 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.”
Part of a national programme
The Welsh Government’s PET‑CT programme aims to establish four static scanners across Wales within the next decade — in Swansea, Velindre, North Wales, and a fourth location yet to be confirmed.
Construction at Singleton, led by contractor Tilbury Douglas, is expected to be completed by autumn 2026. Equipment installation will follow, with the first patients due to be scanned in early 2027.
Designed with patients in mind
The new building, located at the north end of the hospital site, will include six uptake rooms for patient preparation, a general anaesthesia room, and dedicated waiting and post‑screening areas. It has been carefully designed to avoid disrupting existing services and to protect established trees on the site.
Christine Morrell, Swansea Bay’s Director of Allied Health Professionals and Health Science, said:
“Our capacity and capability on the mobile unit were not giving us what we needed in terms of the population. We are looking forward to it being built and to being able to expand our services.”
‘Much‑needed development’
Swansea Bay University Health Board Chair, Jan Williams, said she and Hywel Dda Chair Neil Wooding were delighted to see work begin:
“This is an exciting development which is much needed for the population of South West Wales. It will give the expert staff who provide such excellent care the opportunity to enhance their service even further.”
