High demand for existing scanners meant a new machine was a priority and procurement had been expedited, a report to be considered by the Southern District Health Board on Thursday said.
The machine had already been ordered, chief executive Chris Fleming said.
"The lead-in time is likely 20 weeks and our facilities team are working to ensure that the building work is completed within this timeframe."
For the most to be made of the new machine, extra medical imaging technologists and associated staff would need to be recruited.
In March, a board subcommittee was told the CT scanning service had been running at 58% and 41% performance in December and January respectively, and had been seriously affected by machinery and software issues.
Other imaging services, MRI and sonography, recorded similar results.
The SDHB was working on a 10-year radiology strategy, and hoped that would address both short-term and long-term issues Mr Fleming said.
"We hope to demonstrate the short-term demands and to give a sense of how these could be funded ... while also giving an indication of what needs to be done in the longer term, for example finding a way to put a second MRI machine into Dunedin," he said.
The strategy would consider expected future demand, ways of improving access to the services, possible outsourcing options and possible joint ventures to fund a new MRI machine.
A replacement programme for the current machines would also be examined, balancing the length of time they were expected to keep functioning and when the new Dunedin Hospital would open for patients.
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Access to CT and MRI scans in a timely way are a matter of life and death. In my own case, every day of delay in getting diagnostic scans raises the risks to my health and potentially shortens my life, as treatment options narrow. Facing the choice between major surgery and palliative end of life care, delays and unexplained cancelations of scans are a stress that I simply don't need right now.