The COVID-19 walk-in clinic at the Garran surge centre will move to Weston Creek this week, marking another step towards the eventual shut down and removal of the temporary hospital built on an oval.
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The surge centre, which was established on an oval across from Canberra Hospital at the start of the pandemic to provide extra hospital capacity, will continue to offer COVID-19 testing.
The clinic, which provides non-urgent health care to people who have tested positive for COVID-19, will move to the Weston Creek Community Health Centre from Thursday, September 29.
"With falling COVID-19 case numbers in the ACT over the last two months, we've seen a decrease in patients coming to the COVID-19 Clinic. So, it will now run at a reduced capacity in-line with falling case numbers and decreased demand in the community," Canberra Health Services said in a statement.
"The clinic will be open from 2pm - 10pm seven days a week. No appointment is needed, and there is no cost to attend."
Separate entrances will be established at the health centre to keep people with COVID-19 and other patients separate within the building.
The clinic opened at the Garran site in January during the peak of the Omicron wave that resulted in a large number of Canberrans testing positive for the coronavirus.
The temporary, $23 million facility has previously been used to administer COVID-19 vaccinations and collect samples for COVID-19 testing, but the site has never been needed for what it was intended: an additional 50-bed emergency room for coronavirus patients.
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An ACT government spokesman said the government would continue to work out what the future use of the surge centre would be, but said it remained one of the territory's key testing facilities.
"[The government] remains committed to removing it from the Garran Oval at the appropriate time and remediating the oval for community use," the spokesman said.
"The ACT government continually reviews its COVID-19 response services to ensure they remain appropriate. This includes the availability of free and accessible COVID-19 testing services."
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
