Located next to Canberra Hospital's emergency department, the centre will be staffed by specialist nurses and provide free treatment for minor illnesses and injuries from May 18.

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the program was being considered across Australia.

''We're watching it very keenly, we are supporting other similar initiatives in terms of recognising the skills of nurses,'' Ms Roxon said.

''We're very open to this sort of model being able to be established elsewhere when you have a state or territory government that's keen to do it or when we have proposals put to us by local health professionals.''

ACT Health Minister Katy Gallagher said the the centre would help address the region's GP shortage and offer faster treatment.

ACT Health's assistant director of nursing walk-in centres, Naree Stanton, said if people could not be treated at the centre they would be redirected to the hospital or a local GP.

The centre will be independently evaluated in 12 months and is expected to treat up to 30,000 people in its first year. It will be open from 7am to 11pm every day.

For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.