The ACT Government is prioritising the delivery of a new Inner South Health Centre to provide the Southside with better access to health services and care closer to home and reducing the need to travel for care.

Through past consultations with the community, we have received feedback about:

• priorities for community health services to be included at the centre
• specific considerations for the site and its surrounding area
• the location of the health centre
• traffic impacts, carparking and access to public transport
• impacts of the health centre on green space and the environment.

As a result, we have already made the following changes:

• Maintaining a green space corridor between Throsby Park and Blaxland Park, behind the new Health Centre.
• A path for pedestrians to easily move between the Griffith shops and the new Health Centre entrance.
• Separation of public parking and access from staff and utility parking and access.
• Adjustments to windows and ceilings to increase privacy and natural light.
• All public and clinical spaces accommodated on the new Centre’s ground floor level for ease of access.

Now we would like to know your initial impressions about the design of the health centre before it moves to into the formal Development Application (DA) process.

As part of this pre-planning process, we are seeking feedback from the school community, local residents, businesses and other interested stakeholders to help inform the Development Application before it is lodged. We will be visiting local shops in the area with some of our project staff to have a conversation, answer questions and gather any feedback in relation to the project.

Following the lodgement of the Development Application, the community will also have an opportunity to review the application and make a formal submission once it is made available for public comment through the ACT Planning Authority's statutory consultation process.

The centre will be built off Throsby Crescent, behind the Griffith Shops, which will offer convenience for patients, staff and visitors in the area, reflecting the role of Griffith shops as a central hub for the community.

The Government is investing $36 million to build the new Health Centre which is one of four new centres the ACT Government has committed to building across the Territory. The new Health Centre will offer a greater variety of community-based health services including:

• oral health
• pathology collection
• post-acute care and support
• rapid access clinics, and;
• chronic disease management.

The new centre will complement a significant investment in the healthcare network including existing networks of nurse-led Walk-in Centres and community health centres, as well as significant upgrades to the Canberra Hospital and North Canberra Hospital.

Please find concept designs of the centre below. A copy of the site plan is also available in the document library (above right on this page) if you would like to see more detail.

Consultation on the Inner South Health Centre’s service offering and location.

In 2024, we asked the community what services they would like to see available at this new health centre.

Through surveys, quick comments and in-person conversations, we heard from you about:

• the important considerations when designing the new health centre
• your top three priorities for community health services at the centre
• specific considerations for the site and its surrounding area.

You can find a summary of the feedback received by the ACT Government in the What We Heard Report.

In late 2025 further consultation was undertaken to support a Major Plan Amendment ahead of the project being declared a Territory Priority Project.

Feedback from this process included further comments on:

• the location of the health centre
• traffic impacts, carparking and access to public transport
• impacts of the health centre on green space and the environment.

You can read a summary of comments received and responses on the Territory Planning Authority website.

Feedback gathered on the centre’s design will help inform the Development Application (DA) for the new Health Centre which is expected to be lodged soon.

The DA will provide a proposed final design for the centre as well as outline more detail about other considerations for the new centre. The Development Application will provide a final opportunity to make a formal submission about the centre. More detail about how to make a submission to the DA process will be provided when the DA is lodged. Community consultation in 2024 helped shape the design and services. Feedback from the community helped plan the services offered at the new centre.