Andrew Leigh

People in the ACT will soon enjoy a variety of health services in convenient locations, with the first sod turned on the ACT GP Super Clinic ‘hub’ in Bruce today.

[caption id="attachment_3831" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Joining Minister Tanya Plibersek, and Chief Minister Katy Gallagher for the first sod-turned on the Bruce GP Super Clinic construction site"][/caption]

This new GP Super Clinic will mean easier access for patients to healthcare services, with three locations around Canberra. GP Super Clinics are a key part of the Government’s commitment to providing all Australians with access to high quality health care, when they need it, where they need it. These clinics bring together a variety of health professionals to work as a team, providing the best possible overall care for their patients.

The Australian Government has provided $15 million for the ACT GP Super Clinic, which will be built on a ‘hub and spoke’ (main and subsidiary clinics) model. The Bruce hub will be in a larger four-storey building on the University of Canberra campus. The second hub will be built in Casey, northern Gungahlin. An existing practice in Calwell will form a GP Super Clinic ‘spoke’, giving staff and students the opportunity to work across a number of practice areas.

In addition to providing GP and nursing services and a variety of other healthcare services such as physiotherapy, the Bruce hub will also strongly emphasise education for medical, nursing and other health students. We know that medical students who train in the ACT are more likely to end up living and working in our community. Training the next generation of healthcare professionals in the GP Super Clinic environment, with its emphasis on teamwork, will lay the groundwork for better and more convenient health services in Canberra.

The ACT GP Super Clinic is being established by Ochre Health (ACT) Pty Ltd. The construction at Bruce is being funded jointly by Health Workforce Australia, the University of Canberra and the Department of Health and Ageing, and is expected to be completed by early 2014.
The Australian Government is making a significant investment in GP Super Clinics. It. has committed about $650 million to build more than 60 of the clinics around Australia, and upgrade and extend about 425 existing general practices, community and other health services, and Aboriginal Medical Services. There are now 48 clinics either open, providing limited services or under construction.