Public and private hospitals should join forces rather than compete against each other when it comes to buying expensive state-of-the-art equipment, according to the head of Saint James Hospital, Josie Muscat.

"We should sit around a table and discuss. I am sure we could do a lot of things together," he said yesterday.

Dr Muscat, whose hospital has just invested in a €2 million Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET) scanner, which shows how tissues are functioning, said it made more sense to share resources rather than double up on expensive equipment considering Malta's small size.

The government is expected to install another of these expensive scanners at Mater Dei Hospital, a promise made before last year's general election.

"I am not telling the government what to buy but there are other things that are still not available in Malta and could be acquired rather than having two of something," he said.

Dr Muscat said the norm in the world was to have a PET scanner for every 400,000 people, which meant that one scanner would be enough for Malta. "There are other technologies we still do not have in Malta and the government should invest in those first," he said.

A PET scanner is a very important tool of investigation, especially in cancer patients because it does not only look at the spread of the disease but also how cancer was responding to treatment. It was also used for cardiology, neurology and inflammatory pathologies, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

A spokesman for the Health Parliamentary Secretariat said the authorities were working on procuring and installing a PET scanner at Mater Dei.

He said it was "highly likely" that the investment would be partly funded by the Swiss Fund, which aimed to reduce economic and social disparities within the enlarged European Union. There was still no date as to when the scanner would arrive in Malta because the hospital was still awaiting a final reply from the Swiss authorities.

The initial investment is just the tip of the iceberg in the running costs of a PET scan. A special chemical, called a tracer, has to be injected in patients undergoing a scan. Such tracers have a shelf life of just a few hours and since there is no production plant in Malta they have to be flown in from Rome before each examination.