An Official Information Act response released on Tuesday revealed the hospital plans only include space for a scanner to be installed in future.
"The provision of a PET scanner is not in scope for the project," the Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (HNZ) response said.
"Therefore, no PET scanner has been chosen or ordered."
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti, who last month refused to confirm whether government would honour National’s election promises regarding the new hospital, did not comment on the issue.
However, his office provided a statement that said provision for a new PET scanner had "not been taken off the table".
"This is a particularly large and complex piece of infrastructure and the minister will continue to be briefed by officials.
"He also looks forward to visiting Dunedin and viewing the project for himself."
The question of when a decision would be made was left unanswered.
Taieri Labour MP Ingrid Leary said the response was political rhetoric and not a commitment.
"We need to know if a PET scanner is actually planned and for when.
"Most urgently, we need to know how people in the deep South needing potentially lifesaving PET scan services can access them now without having to pay thousands of dollars, while people elsewhere pay nothing."
This follows Ms Leary’s criticism of Dr Reti in Parliament on Wednesday, in which she raised his lack of a clear commitment to the hospital.
Southern patients were paying $4500 and travelling to Christchurch for the same scans residents of the city got for free, she said.
"That’s just not fair, and it is not fair to use my constituents as collateral for his inability to be able to deliver on the things he promised."
Last July National announced it would boost the budget of the $1.68billion project by $30million if elected.
The boost was aimed at reversing some of the controversial $80m worth of design cutbacks made by the Labour government.
National said it would fund the reinstatement of 23 inpatient beds, two operating theatres and the country’s first publicly owned PET scanner.
It would also be the first PET scanner of any kind in the South, although last March Pacific Radiology said it would include one in the Dunedin building it expected to open in 2025.
HNZ spokeswoman Monique Fouwler said the plan for warm-shelling the PET scanner was as had previously been approved
No lead lining had been ordered for any radiology room to date, and this was not expected to occur for "another couple of years", the OIA response revealed.
Plans for the warm shell of the PET scanner included lead lining, Ms Fouwler confirmed.
