The specialist mental health clinic has been the subject of cut-back rumours since July.

Dr Frukacz said he is concerned the unit will only be open Monday to Friday – and then eventually closed, as it won’t be functional under those conditions.

There has been speculation that clients will be transported to Bloomfield Hospital each weekend, something that would undoubtedly affect their recovery. 

The Western NSW Local Health District has twice rejected rumours that there are any changes planned. 

However, the matter will come to a head at a joint meeting today where the hospital executive will inform staff of the “future directions” of Panorama Clinic. 

Dr Frukacz said real uncertainty now exists as to the future viability of Panorama Clinic due to the budgetary constraints experienced by the local health district.

“It would be all too easy for the health administrators in Orange to close Panorama Clinic, robbing our area of a vital resource, especially for patients without private health insurance,” he said.

Dr Frukacz said these patients would be left with only one option – admission to Bloomfield Hospital; a course of action few patients would want to take up.

He said the Western NSW Local Health District has been experiencing financial difficulties, with pressure on all services to reduce expenditure. 

“While the public had been kept in the dark about this, and no doubt any concerns would be addressed by the familiar refrain that frontline services would not be impacted, recent uncertainty about the future of our local inpatient psychiatric unit, Panorama Clinic, should be of concern to all residents of Bathurst and surrounding districts,” he said.

“Like other health services there appears to be a move to concentrate services in Orange, which is to the detriment of people in Bathurst.” 

The psychiatrist said that Panorama Clinic is unique in that it is a voluntary unit providing patients with an environment equivalent to that usually only found in private psychiatric clinics.

He said it is worlds away from the environment at Bloomfield Hospital. 

“In a field like mental health where there is already considerable stigma and embarrassment, as well as real fear about treatment, particularly hospital treatment, a unit like Panorama Clinic is a vital resource,” Dr Frukacz said.

“Unless the people of Bathurst take up the cause of such a service, in much the same way they have successfully done with Daffodil Cottage, I fear this clinic will eventually be lost.” 

Dr Frukacz is urging the community to write to their local politicians and the health bureaucracy including Bathurst MP Paul Toole, the Minister for Health Kevin Humphries and CEO of the Western NSW Local Health District Scott McLachlan.