🧲Cancer and high-cost care· 2010-2026
All of the country's PET-CT is done at a single centre
The FNR funds the scan that helps decide whether a cancer treatment continues or changes, but only one centre performs it in Uruguay: CUDIM, with more than 7,000 scans a year.
Bodies involved
Fondo Nacional de Recursos
What it is
PET-CT shows a tumour's metabolic activity and helps determine whether a treatment continues, changes or stops. The National Resources Fund finances it for cancer patients whose general condition allows them to tolerate the specific treatment and with a life expectancy over 3 months, and also in refractory epilepsy and prolonged fever syndrome, with set intervals: 4 weeks after chemotherapy ends, 12 weeks from the last radiotherapy session and 8 weeks from a surgical procedure at the site to be studied. The Fund itself states that "PET is performed at the only existing centre in our country, the Uruguayan Centre for Molecular Imaging (CUDIM)".
What is questioned
Montevideo Portal reported on 3 February 2026 that "the number of PET-CT scans rose 80%, going from some 4,000 procedures in 2015 to more than 7,000 today", most linked to cancer conditions, and that "cancer scans covered by the National Resources Fund (FNR) are performed at no cost to patients or institutions". IMPO's magazine notes that CUDIM performed the country's first PET/CT scan in June 2010, that it has accumulated more than 16,000 studies, that close to 70 people work there among physicians, chemists, technicians and administrative and service staff, and that "an agreement between CUDIM and the National Resources Fund (FNR) makes almost all studies free for the patient". In short: the entire national capacity for a publicly funded diagnostic technique is concentrated in a single provider, tied to the Fund by an agreement.
Why it matters to you
If the country's only centre halts or saturates, there is nowhere to refer patients: PET-CT helps define whether a cancer treatment continues, changes or stops. That the scan is free for the patient does not remove the question of how much the State pays for each one, and under what agreement.
Where it stands
The arrangement remains in force: the FNR keeps published the rules for the financed procedure and the reference to CUDIM as the country's only centre, and Montevideo Portal reported in February 2026 the sustained growth in demand. As of this file's closing date (August 2026), the sources consulted record nothing after February 2026 and no announcement of a second PET-CT centre. None of the sources consulted raises any observation about the centre's performance.
This money does not travel through state procurement
The contract-by-contract cross-reference is not available for this file. The money is executed through a channel the public-procurement open data does not record, so putting a total here would be inventing it. The cited sources are, for now, the only public quantification.
Where it goes instead
Public-private partnerships (PPP), trusts, state-to-state contracts, direct agreements, or a state company's own budget. None of those channels publish their awards on the Compras Estatales portal.
PET-CT funding is channelled through an agreement between the FNR —a non-state public entity— and CUDIM, not through an open tender, so it is unlikely to appear in the state procurement search. The sources consulted do not report the per-scan price the Fund pays. IMPO's "more than 16,000 studies" figure is cumulative and its page is undated.
Explore contracts in the explorer