An extra eight beds have been added to the Canberra Hospital's intensive care unit, following a Commonwealth-funded expansion of the unit.
The $13.5 million project brings the total number of physical beds in the unit to 39.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the growing and ageing population across the ACT and Southern NSW meant it was crucial to prepare for increased intensive care unit demand.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown just how important it is to have surge intensive care capacity in the territory's health system," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
"These expansion works have created a cutting-edge facility, with more negative pressure spaces to separate infectious and non-infectious patients."
ACT Senator Zed Seselja said the federally funded expansion would provide more space in the hospital to care for the sickest and most critical patients.
"The ICU at Canberra Hospital treats around 2200 patients annually, and the completion of this expansion will mean more patients are able to receive the critical care they need, close to their family and loved ones," Senator Seselja said.
The much-delayed Canberra Hospital expansion project will also deliver a 60-bed intensive care unit. The project, promised before the 2016 ACT election, is due for completion in 2024.
Ms Stephen-Smith said health authorities were recruiting additional staff as part of a $28.4 million commitment in the ACT budget to add another four beds to the unit.
Forty extra full-time equivalent staff will be hired to care for patients in the expanded unit.
The ACT government acknowledged before the onset of the COVID pandemic that the intensive care unit at Canberra Hospital would be at or near capacity before the hospital expansion project was completed, if the unit was not upgraded in the interim.
The hospital had been encouraged in 2018 by its then clinical operations chief, Mark Dykgraaf, to expand the unit to between 48 and 52 beds within a year and a half.
Work began to increase the number of intensive care beds in the ACT in April last year in response to the first wave of COVID-19 infections in Australia.
The physically expanded intensive care unit at the Canberra Hospital will provide greater capacity to surge up the number of beds if there is patient demand.
The government also committed $39 million in its October 6 budget to add 1920 hours of emergency surgery theatre time and eight surgical beds at the hospital.
Ms Stephen-Smith said at the time there had been a rapid growth in demand for emergency surgery, and the extra money would allow the hospital to meet the demand while also balancing the need to deliver elective surgery.
