New radiation “bunker” opens at WRH for cancer patients

Windsor Regional Hospital has opened an additional Fourth Linear Accelerator, offering state-of-the-art radiation treatment for cancer patients.

Windsor Regional Hospital is celebrating the completion of construction of a fourth Linear Accelerator (LINAC) to conduct radiation treatments for cancer patients.

WRH currently performs about 30,000 radiation treatments a year.

Officials say bringing a fourth LINAC online allows WRH to conduct necessary replacements of three existing radiation machines over the next few years.

“Expanding the cancer centre with a modular radiation “bunker” to accommodate a new linear accelerator provides cancer patients with necessary radiation therapy treatment through state-of-the-art technology,” says Jonathan Foster, vice president of Emergency, Trauma, Mental Health, Cancer Services and Renal at WRH.

The project was funded through a $30-million investment by the Ontario government that also included funding to renovate the cardiac catheterization lab at Ouellette Campus, where patients receive angiograms, angioplasties and other minimally invasive cardiac tests and procedures.