Vulnerable and homeless people will be able to access free medical treatment as part of a new healthcare service being offered at the Early Morning Centre.
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The service, which was officially opened on Tuesday, has been fully booked since it began operating a few weeks ago.
The Early Morning Centre, which is funded by the ACT government, provides free breakfast, drop-in support services, office facilities and now primary healthcare to homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged people.
The once-a-week, two-hour service is being delivered by the Interchange General Practice and the National Health Co-op with the support of the government.
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said many homeless and vulnerable people felt unable to access mainstream medical services.
"I think it's a great outcome at a relatively low cost, I'm talking $35,000 for a 12-month trial to see how and whether it works to provide healthcare to this group," she said.
"In the past two weeks, they've run flu clinics here. I can't think of another time when a group of disadvantaged Canberrans would have had access to flu clinics in a place they feel safe and happy to attend."
UnitingCare Canberra City director Chris Stokman said the service would reduce the barriers for vulnerable and disadvantaged people to access free mainstream healthcare services.
"We believed this model of taking free health services to people who are homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged would increase the assistance they received," she said.
ACT Medicare Local chairwoman Rashmi Sharma said many of the people using the Early Morning Centre had previously been unable to access healthcare services.
"These are very vulnerable members of our population – they don't necessarily have Medicare cards, they don't necessarily have the funding to be able to go and see a private doctor, and so this is actually bringing free healthcare to them," she said.
"This is offering primary healthcare, so we're talking about prevention, treatment of illnesses that don't require treatment within a hospital setting. For example, many of these people may not have had their blood pressure checked in the past 10 years, so it's actually being able to pick up health conditions that may have otherwise been undiagnosed and treating them appropriately."
Ms Gallagher believes the service will be well used and she expected funding for the service to be extended beyond the 12-month trial.
The ACT has the second highest rate of homelessness in Australia with about 1900 people.
