A plan for a £10 million center to help diagnose cancer has been approved.
The centre of South Tyneside Hospital means that local residents will no longer need to travel to Newcastle or Middlesbrough for a scan.
The new diagnostic center will be equipped with the latest scanning equipment from the private company Alliance Medical.
The center is expected to open at the end of 2022 and will replace the mobile scanning vehicle currently in use.
Work has already been carried out on site, and the former nurse's home is demolished to prepare for the new center.
The center will include world-class MRI and CT scanning equipment as well as PET-CT scanners that help diagnose cancer.
It will also integrate with the trust's digital medical record system, which the trust says will lead to faster start of treatment.
According to the plan, Alliance Medical will pay the capital cost of construction and scanning equipment, and the Health Trust will pay the cost of "per scan" within an agreed time frame of more than 10 years.
For the past 10 years, it has provided mobile diagnostic vehicles for South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (STSFT) and PET-CT scans throughout the NHS.
Hospital activists had previously expressed concern about this arrangement, but the head of the NHS said it was worth the money.
Ken Bremner, CEO of STSFT, said: "This is about creating future-friendly services and providing the best care for the local communities we serve.
"This is a major development for the locals, not only in South Tyneside, but also in Sunderland and Durham, and we are very happy to move on and realize our plan," he added.
In 2018, a campaign to save South Tyneside Hospital was launched after the reorganization resulted in the reduction of some services and the transfer of others to Sunderland
South Tyneside City Councillor Geraldine Kilgour, who serves as a member of the planning committee, acknowledged concerns about the funding arrangements for the diagnostic center, but said that the development will "provide stable services and strengthen the hospital site."
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