Hunter New England Health assistant chief of nuclear medicine Christopher Skilton said the new machine will greatly enhance the hospital’s ability to treat cancer patients, and others.

“This machine allows us to take nuclear medicine images by sliding the patient through the camera while taking a CT scan simultaneously,” he said.

“We can then fuse those images together, and a few software advantages that allows us to generate a lot better images, more accurately and precisely locate abnormalities to provide better patient care to the local community.”

The new state-of-the-art machine is one of only 40 in Australia, replacing a machine that was 15 years old.

One of the key benefits comes with the software package, which is capable of holding patients scans and photos on file, comparing new scans to old scans to show even the slightest changes over designated time periods.

Parliamentary secretary for Regional and Rural Health Leslie Williams travelled to Tamworth to unveil the new machine, as well as two eHealth initiatives and an improved breast screening program at the hospital.

Mrs Leslie is also addressing the delegates at the seventh annual Rural Health and Research Congress being held at the Tamworth Town Hall this week.