Rachel Stephen-Smith to introduce legislation to compulsorily acquire Calvary today

Ms Stephen-Smith is introducing the legislation only one day after publicly announcing plans to acquire the hospital.

Canberra Health Services will run the hospital from July 3.

But the move has been strongly condemned by Calvary, which is considering its options.

The government has said it is acquiring the site so work can begin on a new $1 billion hospital for Canberra's booming north.

The government, which also announced the plans for the hospital on Wednesday, said construction would start by the middle of the decade and is due to be completed by 2030.

The money for the hospital will be allocated in next month's territory budget. The $1 billion does not include the money needed to acquire Calvary.

Ms Stephen-Smith has said the acquisition would also allow the health system to be better integrated.

"Despite these good personal relationships [with Calvary], the efforts of individuals involved and Calvary's ongoing commitment to high quality care, fragmentation and barriers to genuinely integrated and networked hospital services remain. This tells me and the government that these issues are structural for Canberrans," she said.

The decision has been blasted by Calvary, with its national chief executive Martin Bowles expressing great disappointment at the decision.

"Calvary is extremely disappointed in the ACT government's unexpected and unilateral decision to introduce legislation that effectively dissolves our partnership on public health delivery in the territory," he said.

Mr Bowles said he was only notified of the move on Monday. He said there were negotiations with the government but he said, prior to Monday, he had not heard anything since November.

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The decision was also criticised by leaders in Canberra's Catholic Church with Archbishop Christopher Prowse said he was "totally stunned and shocked" by the decision "which came without warning or discussion".

Former prime minister Tony Abbott also took a swipe at the move, labelling the ACT government as "overbearing and arrogant" and said it looked like "yet another assault on the Church".

Staff are expected to retain their positions.

"Our clear aim is that staff will be able to keep doing the same job with the same team in a public hospital that respects the care [workers] provide everyday to patients and to each other," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

But Mr Bowles has said there are concerns.

"Our priority is the wellbeing of our 1800 employees at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce, who have not been consulted at all about the potential ramifications of this decision," he said.

"Unsurprisingly, this announcement is distressing for them and we will support them through the next steps and aid their understanding of the options available to them."

The Canberra Liberals will not support the legislation, with acting Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson saying the move was "ethically" wrong.

"We are absolutely appalled by this. We will not be supporting it. We will not be supporting any legislation that the government tries to ram through," he said.

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