A total of 23 scheduled PET scans have been postponed at Mater Dei Hospital due to technical problems at an Italian company that manufactures the chemicals used in the procedure.

However, the delay “is devastating” for a young woman who was diagnosed with cancer last week and had a PET scan cancelled three times.

She described the wait for the scan, which was vital to her accurate diagnosis, as “killing your fighting spirit”.

Hospital CEO Ivan Falzon said earlier this week that problems had arisen at the Italian company where a special chemical used in PET scanning was produced.

The hospital called her just two hours before her appointment. ‘I was livid – it’s stupid not to have thought of a plan B’

The positron emission tomograph scan – PET for short – is an imaging test that uses a radioactive substance called a tracer to look for disease in the body and shows organs and tissues are working.

“You are told you have cancer and imagine it spreading all over your body. You are expecting the worst and getting ready to die,” she said.

On one occasion, the hospital called her to postpone just two hours before her appointment as she was driving there. “I was livid – it’s stupid on their behalf not to have thought of a plan B.”

A health ministry spokesman said Malta bought the fluorodeoxyglucose isotope used in PET scans from Tor Vergata in Rome.

The isotope “needs to be used within a few hours of its production”.

Mater Dei purchases from Rome because this “enables prompt transfer by Alitalia, which has the necessary permits to carry radioactive substances”.

The problems developed earlier this week and Mater Dei was informed that repair works were under way.

As soon as they were finished and the isotope could be sourced, the scans would resume, the spokesman said.