The last critical piece for Windsor Regional Hospital's state-of-the-art PET/CT scanner has arrived.

The device was delivered Thursday just as staff members continue training on the 68,000-pound machine.

Once in full operation, officials say the PET/CT scanner will provide more than 600 scans every year and help eliminate long travel times to London, Hamilton or elsewhere to determine best treatment options for cancer diagnosis.

Hospital CEO and president David Musyj tells CTV Windsor a ribbon cutting is expected to happen soon and the CT scanner will be up and running hopefully within a few days.

But he adds more training and tests need to be done first.

The scanner was delivered by transport truck in April but Musyj says it needs to be housed in its own facility on site because space is limited inside the Met and Ouellette campuses.

“It’s in its own portable unit right outside of the cancer centre,” says Musyj. “I wish we had the facilities inside this building to house it but we don't but as a result that's kind of the future, operating out of portables."

The Ministry of Health is picking up the entire cost of the $3.5-million machine.