The new unit will include just eight new beds, all of them for patients over 65.

Hunter New England Health forecasts the region won't need a single additional adult acute care bed over the existing 25 to meet current and expected demand for the next decade.

The Member for Northern Tablelands isn't so sure, and told media on Friday he plans to get answers about the capacity at the new institution from the Minister for Health Brad Hazzard.

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"If you're going to spend tens of millions of dollars doing it let's measure twice cut once," Mr Marshall said.

"It is a facility that is a regional facility that will service people from outside of the Tamworth electorate.

"I'm obviously going to ask some questions now about the size of Banksia and if we're going to spend that money should we make it a little bit bigger to provide even more services, given that the demand is not going to decrease; if anything it's going to increase."

Mental health advocates are particularly concerned that the new centre won't contain any additional mental health services for young people.

Children in Tamworth have access to just a single youth and adolescent psychiatrist, and the doctor works just a day a week or so.

He said the level of service for young people "doesn't cut it".

"This is a problem throughout our whole health system isn't it," he said.

"How do you expect to get more of those services when we've got communities that barely have enough GPs?

"Gunnedah's got three GPs, Inverell's got less than 10 now, these are communities that are 12,000 or 13,000 population and growing.

"If we can't find basic primary healthcare professionals like GP's then we're really pushing uphill when it comes to getting highly specialised services.

"The positions are here, the work is here, it's not a question of money, it's a question of getting the people themselves.

"We don't have a fully-regulated health system where you can force those professionals to come to certain areas.

"There are incentives that you can employ but you can't force them to come out here.

"Maybe we need to, because we cannot allow our communities to be completely denuded of these services, because the cost of picking up the piece of that damage, no government has enough money to do that.

"That is my biggest concern I have for our region, for regional Australia, is this gradual death by a thousand cuts of gradually losing health services.

"Now we're seeing it in the most basic of primary healthcare GP services.

"It scares me, it really scares me, about what it's going to be like in another five to ten years. And there's no simple solution."

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Mr Marshall said prevention is better than cure in mental health care, as with everything else.

Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson sponsored a 13,000-signature petition to NSW parliament in 2018. The MP has worked with local advocates for three years to get the project funded.

"The recent focus has been on a new facility being built in Tamworth, but I firmly believe a rising tide floats all boats with more funding needed across the entire sector," he said.

"I will be knocking on the door of the Minister for Mental Health to push for more funding for improved mental health services, not only in Tamworth, but across the entire New England North West."

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