The centre would deliver day surgeries including ear, nose and throat, gynecological, orthopaedic, ophthalmology and dental.

It would be located at the University of Canberra Hospital precinct and cost about $21 million to establish.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said it would be ready to take patients by 2024-25 and include six-day surgery operating theatres.

"The centre will take pressure off our current and future hospitals by delivering day procedures," he said.

"Canberra's north is continuing to grow, and ACT Labor will ensure that our health infrastructure can cater for this growing demand.

"Providing day surgery away from the hospital campus will improve the efficiency of our elective surgery capacity and provide better, more holistic care for patients."

Mr Barr said a Labor government would also inject $16 million over three years to upgrade and expand endoscopy facilities at Canberra Hospital.

"This investment will deliver an additional 5000 endoscopy procedures each year from 2023, meeting the growing need for diagnosis and detection of many conditions, including some cancers," he said.

Mr Barr also committed to deliver an extra 6000 elective surgeries over the next four years, compared to the past four years.

Before the coronavirus crisis, Canberra already had some of the longest elective surgery wait times in the country.

The shutdown on elective surgery earlier in the year due to coronavirus restrictions created a further back log of thousands of surgeries.

Opposition Leader Alistair Coe said it was a desperate measure to try to fix a problem brewing for years.

"There are many people in the ACT who have been waiting a long time for elective surgery," he said.

"And only now, on the eve on an election, is the government taking any action.

"What they're doing is fundamentally changing the philosophy and the purpose of the UC Hospital.

"It was intended to be a rehabilitation facility, and now they are turning it into more of a conventional hospital, albeit with another conventional hospital just a kilometre down the road."

Australian Medical Association ACT president Antonio Di Dio welcomed the announcement.

"It may be enough [to ease surgery wait times] if it is genuinely built in addition to the SPIRE centre," he said.