Inside Canberra's pop-up COVID-19 emergency department

It's also a hospital that health authorities hope they never have use.

At a time when coronavirus cases were spiking across the country, the ACT government announced Garran Oval would be converted to a temporary hospital specifically to handle COVID-19 patients, should existing emergency departments not have enough capacity to meet demand.

Construction of the hospital finished last week, with the whole facility completed in just 37 days.

Although the ACT is one of just two jurisdictions in the country where there are no active cases of coronavirus, the temporary COVID-19 hospital remains ready to take in patients.

"No one buys an insurance policy hoping to crash their car. This hospital here is our 'just in case'," Canberra Health Services deputy chief executive Dave Peffer said.

"We're at a point in time where we're observing what's happening internationally and health systems around the world are finding themselves underprepared and overwhelmed, and a key direction was we wouldn't follow that path."

Inside, the hospital has room for 51 patients, including one bed for palliative care.

The hospital is effectively two-in-one, with separate, near-identical sections for patients suspected of having COVID-19 and those who have been confirmed to have COVID-19.

Separating the two wards is a central staff corridor, or "green zone", designed to ensure contaminated equipment or protective gear doesn't travel between the two areas.

While both areas of the hospital are designed to be similar, the area for suspected coronavirus patients has dedicated rooms for hospital staff to put on and take off personal protective equipment, so new patients don't become infected.

Major Projects Canberra project director Sophie Gray said it was critical all precautions were taken to stop any spread.

"What we have learned from the World Health Organisation is that there is a high turnover of personal protective equipment, particularly on the COVID-suspect side," she said.

"What we wouldn't want is for healthcare workers to contribute to potentially spreading the disease."

Upon arriving, patients are screened in their car in the outdoor car park for potential symptoms, before being directed to one of the two hospital sections based on their condition.

Separate entrances are available on either side for patients being transported to the hospital by ambulance.

From there, patients are taken to a triage room, before being going into one of three wards for COVID-19 patients, including one for acute patients.

Hospital staff will be sitting in a centralised room behind glass, and can be spoken to via an intercom to minimise any infection.

Dedicated rooms are also available for COVID-19 testing.

A resuscitation bay with three beds is also there in both sections of the hospital, should patients need to be ventilated.

Visitors will not be able to access the temporary hospital, with the exception of the palliative care section, where guests will enter through a separate room to suit up with protective equipment before they are able to see their loved one.

For the moment, the hospital is only staffed by maintenance crews and security, but will be used by medical teams should the need arise.

However, Mr Peffer said the hospital would only be used should there be a surge in capacity at Canberra's existing hospitals where demand is unable to be met.

"Numbers would have to reach a certain point. We have the capacity with our current footprint and we won't use surge capacity when we can handle low numbers with the current capacity," he said.

"There would be clear triggers as we escalate a response, and as soon as we couldn't handle the patient flow, we would activate the surge capacity."

While the project cost $23 million, $10.5 million was on the building and construction itself, with a further $3.5 million spent on equipment.

The remaining cost is allocated for staffing should the need arise, with health authorities saying the overall cost will be less should no patients need to use the facility.

Despite initial discussions about the temporary hospital being used for simulation purposes if case numbers don't spike, the hospital will only be for coronavirus patients.

Canberra has not seen a new case of COVID-19 for more than two weeks, but Mr Peffer said the temporary hospital would remain on Garran Oval for the near future.

"From the indications given, the hospital won't be taken down this side of the flu season and it would be later in the year at the earliest," he said.

"As we progress through the pandemic and there's no declared state of health emergency, it has to be demobilised."

The facility is able to be packed away into several shipping containers, to be kept by the ACT government for future use for other purposes.

"It can be deconstructed a bit like Lego, where it can be reassembled or stored away," Mr Peffer said.

Garran Oval would then be able to be returned to the community.

Some of the locally sourced materials used to build the hospital are able to be reused and taken down quickly, such as refrigerated wall panels.

"Normally when you're constructing walls there are about six or seven processes to building them up, and you're using harsh chemicals to decontaminate them," Ms Gray said.

"These have been ready made and have accelerated the assembly."

Mr Peffer said Canberra was in a fortunate position, especially after seeing case numbers spike in places such as the US and Europe.

While he hopes the number of confirmed coronavirus patients continues to decrease in Australia, the temporary hospital will be there as a backup should there be a second wave of infections.

"In the early stages, we were in a unique position where conditions weren't changing from month to month - it was hour to hour, and it was a challenging environment," he said.

"It's our hope that this is not used."