Govt reveals site of new inner south health centre

The site is located behind the Griffith shops in Throsby Park, at the corner of Throsby Lane and Throsby Crescent.

Existing community infrastructure will be demolished and rebuilt, Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said when she announced the site on Monday, July 1.

She said the Griffith health centre would be "a more holistic model" than a walk-in centre but would not have a GP. The centre, not far from Canberra hospital, is intended as a nursing and allied health service for patients with "high and complex" needs.

The primary goal was to bring specialists who provide free care for people and help them avoid going to the hospital, the minister said.

"That's particularly important when you've got an ageing population which we do in part here in the inner south and I'm sure we'll be hearing from people about the health services that that entails," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

"There's a lot of other families moving into the inner south, and of course, some parts [also have] socio-economic disadvantage.

"We really want to hear from the wide diversity of residents ... about what health services they currently use, and what they would like to see in this centre."

She said consultation for the new centre was open until August 12 and ACT Health would be welcoming input from locals and the wider community.

"There might be some medical specialist services here. At the moment, we're not intending to have general practice services here. But again, that needs to be part of the conversation with the community," Ms Stephen-Smith said.

It's the first of the newly announced health centres - at Conder, North Gungahlin and West Belconnen - to have a designated site.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said, "The Inner South centre will be different from the Molonglo Valley centre, different from the West Belconnen and the North Gungahlin centres."

"That's an important part of the design of these centres and the community engagement process that ... [the] facilities meet the needs of the local communities so it's not a one-size-fits-all model of healthcare."