The Liberals have outlined plans to hand $500,000 a year in grants to general practitioner clinics, if elected.
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But Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson has again been forced to defend a proposal to set up emergency departments in Gungahlin and Tuggeranong, after paramedics said it was dangerously misleading and would unnecessarily tie up ambulance resources.
Mr Hanson announced his $2.1 million grants scheme while opening a new GP clinic in Higgins on Thursday morning, owned by not-for-profit National Health Co-op.
He said the grants were aimed at improving patient access, and would preference GPs who show they can improve affordability and deliver bulk-billing.
"Currently in the ACT, Canberrans struggle to get to see a GP," Mr Hanson said.
"We've got the highest cost of visiting a GP, the lowest rate of bulk billing, the lowest number of general practitioners in the country per capita.
"So, by having a grant where GPs can apply, and demonstrate by new infrastructure or training or increasing their hours, that they'll improve patient access, they can then apply for that grant."
The announcement is similar to that made by Labor last month, although it only offered $1 million in grants, and both Labor and the Greens propose building new nurse-led walk-in centres.
Earlier on Thursday morning, the Transport Workers Union issued a statement slamming the Liberals' proposal to build small satellite hospitals with emergency departments in the north and south of Canberra.
The TWU, which represents ambulance workers, condemned the plan as a "dangerous idea which could compromise patient outcomes".
Similar concerns have previously been aired about the use of the term "emergency departments" to describe the hospitals.
The centres would have nowhere near the capacity or capability of major emergency departments, and would only be able to deal with the least serious cases.
Paramedics say the proposal would cause people with life-threatening injuries or illnesses to self-present at the Tuggeranong or Gungahlin satellite hospitals.
Such cases would then need immediate transfer to major emergency departments at Canberra Hospital or Calvary, a delay that the TWU said could be "catastrophic".
The union is also concerned that extra ambulance resources would be needed to transport all the patients who turn up at Gungahlin and Tuggeranong, but can't be dealt with.
"If [Jeremy Hanson] had bothered to talk to ambulance officers they would have told him that the mini ED idea was dangerous," union ACT secretary Klaus Pinkas said.
But Mr Hanson described the union attack as politically-motivated, and said it was part of a broader attack campaign that had been mounted by the movement during the campaign.
Asked why he didn't consult with paramedics, Mr Hanson said the model of care the Liberals were proposing had largely been on the table for years, albeit in the slightly different form of "urgent care clinics".
"I'm just disappointed to see this negativity from the TWU, we've seen real negativity from unions in this campaign," he said.
"The model of care that we have proposed has been supported by the AMA, by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine."
He repeated comments that he was open to changing the description of the hospitals, and would fund an education campaign to make Canberrans aware the mini emergency departments would not cater to serious or life-threatening cases.
