Two linear accelerators, valued at $7 million, will be lowered into the concrete bunkers of the new Cancer Care Centre at Christchurch's St George's Hospital on Monday morning (December 7).

A 50-tonne crane will be required to lower the key components of the Swedish-designed Elektra linear accelerators into place inside the 2.2 metre thick concrete walls of the bunker.

Tony Hunter, Chief Executive Officer of St George's Hospital, said the new $16.5 million Cancer Care Centre would open initially on January 18, but it would be late March before patients would be treated by the new linear accelerator.

"It takes three months to assemble, test, commission and configure the linear accelerators," he said.

The medical oncology consultancy and chemotherapy service, which is temporarily located in St George's Heritage Building, will move to the ground floor of the new Cancer Care Centre on January 18.

"We also have our new CT scanner arriving in about 10 days and it will be assembled and commissioned for use in tandem with the linear accelerators," he said.

St George's will be the first private radiation therapy clinic in the South Island and one of only two in New Zealand.

"For St George's to be a leading health service provider we need to have a full range of services. We do cancer surgery now and this is a logical extension. The clinic is all about choice, being looked after by the same consultant oncologist during the treatment period, being able to access psychosocial and whole-person care and having access to a complete range of chemotherapy drugs and palliative treatments. A special advantage is that all services will be available on the same site.

"We have had numerous discussions with the Canterbury District Health Board over the last few years, looking at the concept and possible structures. As a result of these discussions we have agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding covering a wide range of areas where we will work together," he said.

St George's Clinic expects to treat between 500 and 900 patients in the first year of which 45 per cent are likely to receive radiotherapy.