An expansion at the Windsor Regional Hospital Met Campus is nearly complete.
Construction on the fourth Linear Accelerator machine, also known as LINAC, which conducts radiation procedures for cancer patients is set to open this April.
The expansion was set to open in late fall 2024, however construction delays have pushed the opening date back.
Windsor Regional currently has three LINAC machines that each perform approximately 10,000 radiation procedures annually.
Once this fourth machine opens, the existing three machines will be replaced one-by-one over a 36 month period.
Karen Riddell, acting president and CEO at Windsor Regional Hospital, says at this time it's set to open in April.
"There was a few delays and we're dealing with old infrastructure that we're adding on, it's like when you add onto a house. Right now the main parts of the construction are done, the big parts. The hard part is getting things shipped in and brought across the border, they're just finalizing all that work, and we'll get all the testing done on the machineries."
Riddell says in the long run it will make a huge difference.
"What is will allow us to do is replace our other LINAC's without impacting the number of patients that we can treat. So, we'll be able to maintain our treatment volumes while we replace the other LINAC's. Once we have them all in place of course we'll have significant increase in capacity for treatment for our community."
Dr. Wassim Saad, Chief of Staff at Windsor Regional Hospital, says these machines are very important.
"Patients undergoing cancer treatment who require radiation in particular are treated in the LINAC bunkers. This will be able to increase our capacity for how many patients can receive radiation as part of their cancer treatment in the long run. But, in the short term it gives us the ability to be able to decommission one while we get a new one, and upgrade our fleet until they're all completely new."
The expansion is located on the northwest corner of Windsor Regional Hospital next to the Cancer Centre.
The project was given the green light to proceed to tender in 2023.
The province is funding the project with $10 to $15 million in support.