Four dedicated bariatric rooms, which include three for patients weighing up to 250 kilograms, were unveiled on Monday as Chief Minister Katy Gallagher toured two recently refurbished wards at Canberra Hospital.

The $11.7 million refurbishment has created space for 60 extra surgical beds with orthopaedic, plastic surgery and oral and maxillofacial surgery services to be housed in the new wards. Orthopaedic services will move to the ward next week, with the other services to follow later in the year.

Ms Gallagher said the extra hospital beds would help cope with high demand for such services, especially in orthopaedic services.

"We often have other orthopaedic patients located on other wards. That's not ideal from the medical professional's point of view or the patient's so this will allow a much larger orthopaedic service," she said.

"It's also an area where we have a lot of our elective surgery, particularly those who might wait too long for their elective surgery.

"It's almost like a hospital has this insatiable appetite for new beds so it is carefully managed where do those beds need to be, what speciality do they need to be for, how we run an efficient service as well but it will free up capacity across the hospital just by having those extra beds."

Ms Gallagher said the extra hospital beds would also help reduce elective surgery waiting lists.

Of the 60 beds on the wards, 32 are new hospital beds, Ms Gallagher said.

The wards feature four dedicated bariatric rooms, including the hospital's first "super-bariatric" room for patients weighing up to 500 kilograms.

The room features special beds, bathroom facilities, including a much larger toilet, as well as lifting equipment calibrated to 500 kilograms. There are three other bariatric rooms on the same floor for patients weighing up to 250 kilograms.

Ms Gallagher said the dedicated bariatric rooms were a sign of the times.

"It's very much a sign of how hospitals are having to be built now dealing with some of the weight issues across the community," she said.

About two-thirds of Canberra adults are overweight or obese.

Ms Gallagher said there would be a much smaller percentage deemed morbidly obese and a "tiny percentage" needing super-bariatric hospital services.

"In orthopaedics, that is an area where you'll find them because of the weight and the impact on joints, they'll often need specialised care whether it be around their hips or their knees ... so it is something the orthopaedic service has to manage and has to provide the right care environment for those patients," she said.