The ACT government will keep investing in public health and hospitals over the next four years after a record-high investment in the 2025-26 budget.
A new acute palliative care unit, for people who are terminally ill and needing intensive medical care, is expected to open with eight beds at the end of 2026.
The Canberra Hospital paediatric fracture clinic (for kids with broken bones) will be expanded to help more children with bone and soft tissue issues closer to home.
Money for lung cancer specialist services and breast cancer screening will help detect cancer earlier and funding will support the wellbeing of health staff.
In the 2025-26 budget, the government forecast spending $1.196 billion on health over four years.
Now it expects to spend an additional $231.2 million over four years from 2026-27. Of this, $169.5 million is projected to go towards meeting rising demand and costs for public hospitals.
The government also announced on Tuesday, June 2, that $1.34 billion will go towards the northside hospital project over seven years, starting from the next financial year.
The ACT secured an extra $557 million for the ACT in a national hospital funding agreement, raising the federal government's total five-year contribution to the territory's public hospital system to $4.1 billion.
Treasurer Chris Steel said the staged funding and other infrastructure decisions made in the 2026-27 budget would keep it sustainable.
"We have, and you'll see this through the 26-27 budget, looked very closely at the infrastructure pipeline and fitted in this critical health infrastructure project in that pipeline in a way that makes it sustainable over the long term," Mr Steel said.
The last budget had millions allocated towards big capital works like a new convention centre and swimming pool, and upgraded footpaths, playgrounds and sports infrastructure.
Economist Saul Eslake said in a report on the ACT's finances, handed down in May 2026, that the government's spending on services and infrastructure after the COVID-19 pandemic - after historically sensible spending - led to a worsening fiscal situation.
"There has been a significant deterioration in the financial position of the ACT public sector over the past decade, and in particular during the past five years, as a result both of the Covid-19 pandemic in the early years of the current decade, and of decisions taken during the years immediately after the end of the pandemic," Mr Eslake said.
"This deterioration has been entirely due to conscious policy decisions taken by the ACT government to spend more on both delivering services and providing new infrastructure, without raising sufficient additional revenue.
"Some of those additional spending decisions ... were unavoidable: but many others, especially during the past three years, were not."
The government has already announced funding in the 2025-26 budget for struggling renters, domestic violence services, paramedics, and upgrades to the Canberra to Sydney rail line.
At the same time, some ACT public servants are being offered voluntary redundancies while others are taking action over pay rise demands.
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