Labor has pledged to help establish an advanced nursing masters course, use it to train 10 public health nurses a year, and offer post-graduate scholarships to 39 others.
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The announcement of Labor's $2.55 million nurse training package continues the early arm-wrestle between the major parties on health policy, which is being welcomed by a sector happy that the campaign focus has swung its way.
Last month, the Liberals announced a major $395 million upgrade to Canberra Hospital, and two small satellite hospitals in Tuggeranong and Gungahlin.
Labor countered this week with its $650 million health package, which would see a new building at the Canberra Hospital, a new emergency department, and an expansion of the recently completed women and children's hospital.
The reaction to Labor's hospitals announcement was mostly positive on Friday, although concerns were raised about a lack of detail and the length of time until the opening of its new Surgical Procedures, Interventional Radiology and Emergency Centre in 2022.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr has now announced Labor would work with the University of Canberra to establish a course for nurse practitioners, a masters degree qualification which is currently unavailable in the ACT.
The university already has nursing degrees, but nurse practitioners study at a more advanced level and work in expanded and more specialised clinical roles.
Labor has pledged $500,000 a year for four years to fund an associate professor position at the university.
The university and the associate professor would design the course, and Labor would pay for 10 ACT Health nurses to take it a year.
Labor is also pledging $550,000 for scholarships for up to 39 nurses and midwives to attain post-graduate qualifications.
UC Health Faculty Dean Professor Diane Gibson welcomed the package, saying it would help attract, train, and retain a high quality nursing workforce in Canberra.
"It's the winning trifecta for ensuring a high quality health workforce in the ACT," Professor Gibson said.
Reaction continued on Friday to Labor's new Surgical Procedures, Interventional Radiology and Emergency Centre, or SPIRE Centre, and the rest of its $650 million hospital package.
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation welcomed the funding, praising the increase in in-patient beds at the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children and the construction of a 12-bed child and adolescent mental health unit.
ACT branch secretary Jenny Miragaya said the project would help meet a number of the federation's concerns about gaps in infrastructure and workforce planning.
"Isn't it great that healthcare is front and centre in this election campaign?" Ms Miragaya said.
Australian Medical Association ACT branch president Steve Robson said Friday's announcement was the first he and others had heard of the SPIRE Centre, and with no detail it seemed a bit "utopian".
"We can't quite get our head around how the SPIRE centre was designed. We don't know a lot about the SPIRE centre," he said.
"And the other thing is it seems to be a long way off. The hospital is at capacity and growing and unless spades are put in the earth as soon as the election's over the hospital is beyond breaking point."
But health infrastructure was urgently needed, and doctors liked the idea.
He also welcomed the expansion of the women's and children's hospital, saying it had been too small when built.
It is not clear what work has been done on the SPIRE Centre, with a spokeswoman saying only that the government had been working on the need for a new state-of-the-art building for some time.
The $500 million centre, including a new emergency department, would be designed and planned over the coming four years, with construction funded in the 2020-21 budgets or beyond. The government plans to have it open "about 2022".
The women and children's expansion, costing $70 million, with another $80 million to be spent on staff and operations, would begin in the next term of a Labor government – so before the 2020 election.
The Australian Medical Association has drawn up a report card on the Labor and Liberal proposals, giving Labor a tick for its seven new operating theatres, and the Liberals two ticks for their planned 20 new operating theatres. The Liberals also get two ticks for the plan to have their hospital open in 2020.
Both get the thumbs up for the planned 48-bed intensive care units and new imaging facilities.
