The sub-acute mental health service was closed in August to allow for an expansion of the Bathurst Hospital emergency department as the city braced for a potential COVID-19 outbreak.

Clients were transferred to a "hospital in the home" care model.

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For one of those clients, it meant they had to leave Panorama Clinic just one day after being admitted.

The client's mother, to be referred to using the pseudonym Ms Smith, said they were at first understanding of the Western NSW Local Health District's (WNSWLHD) decision, but are now frustrated after being told the building had not been used for emergency care since home care was introduced.

"It shouldn't have happened full stop. They bang on about COVID and mental health, but then they close the one thing that we need," she said. "... The fact that they closed this facility is appalling."

Ms Smith's son was initially admitted to Bloomfield Hospital in Orange, staying there until space became available for him at Panorama Clinic.

The regional lockdown was announced shortly after he arrived, and so he was transferred into hospital in the home care.

Ms Smith felt her family was managing well initially, but after a couple of weeks her son started to regress and needed to return to Bloomfield, where he could be monitored 24/7.

While health staff were "fantastic" in providing care under the difficult circumstances, Ms Smith said home care was not effective for someone in her son's situation.

"He needed round-the-clock care and if he had that he would be in a different position today," she said.

She has called for the clinic to be reopened so people like her son, who has expressed suicidal thoughts, can get the support they need.

"I want them to open it back up again and I don't want them to close it down. Closing it down puts lives at risk. Mental health is just as important as other conditions that you can see. They need to open it," she said.

Councillor Alex Christian has spoken to several people concerned about Panorama Clinic and joined them in their calls for it to reopen.

"You have people in need that, a lot of the time, their mental health issues are caused or engaged in the home, and it's important that they actually go and stay at another facility because it might be their home life that's the issue," he said.

The WNSWLHD has been unable to say when the Panorama Clinic will reopen, telling the Western Advocate in that the "return to normal service will occur when it is appropriate to do so".

The health district also pushed back against claims the building wasn't in use.

"Sections of the Panorama Clinic building in Bathurst are currently being utilised for a variety of services to assist with WNSWLHD's response to the COVID-19 outbreak," a spokesperson said.

"The areas of the Panorama building that are not currently in use have been made ready for immediate occupancy by clinical teams if required to ensure safe clinical care can be provided to patients should demand on services rapidly increase as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak."

The spokesperson said the home care model had been "shown to be both effective and well-received by consumers", noting it was a finalist in the most-recent NSW Health Quality awards.

They encouraged people to call the WNSWLHD Mental Health Line (1800 011 511) if they were concerned about their own or someone else's mental health.

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