Bendigo hospital performs more operations and sees more patients than ever before.

The hospital's annual report cited a significant growth in the number of presentations and operations completed by the hospital's theatre staff.

It said theatre staff performed 15,460 operations, the emergency department had 57,253 presentations, midwives delivered 1544 babies and medical imaging departments completed 103,379 imaging tests in the past 12 months - more than any other year in the hospital's history.

"We're pleased with overall performance of organisation, the work staff do every day and our capacity to deal with increases in demand," Mr Faulkner said. "It's been a tough winter in terms of (increased demand)."

Anticipated population growth in the Bendigo region meant there would likely be a need for more hospital staff increases in the years to come, Mr Faulkner said.

"Over time, we have every expectation that there will be a steady growth in our population and the needs (that come) with that," he said.

"Bendigo as a centre is a growing community and across the whole region we have those changes in demography. There are more ageing persons and while we live longer, we do so with more illness. As a consequence there will be an increase in (healthcare) demands.

"The significant step up (experienced since opening) the new hospital will plateau. We're not expecting the demand to run at those same sort of levels.

"We had certainly expected some growth but I think the growth was higher than we initially expected.

"We've been able to treat more people in our emergency department, in our beds, in our outpatient clinics, birth more babies and receive more ambulances. We've been able to do that pretty much within our existing physical capacity."

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Mr Faulkner says the hospital had been able to source adequate staffing to take on the recent increase in healthcare demands.

His comments come after a petition calling for an increase of staff at Bendigo Health was submitted to the Legislative Council.

The petition also said there was a need for more money for emergency departments at surrounding hospitals to help combat the high number of people in need of healthcare in the Bendigo region.

"The government needs to fund and open emergency departments at surrounding hospitals in order to improve the health care system and the lives of local Victorians because currently it is a major problem," the petition reads.

Mr Faulkner said he was aware of the petition.

"There is a petition with small number of signatories. Our emergency department is fully staffed," he said.

"I think at times there is a view that more staff will reduce waiting times. That's not necessarily the case.

"Waiting times are more often than not driven by the acuity of the patients that are there. So if we have very sick people, they will need lots of investigation, which takes time.

"No number of additional staff will make a difference to that."

Mr Faulkner said in the staff at Bendigo Health had increased by almost 500 people in the past 12 months.

"We have employed more staff, so it's not as though the same staff are doing that work," he said. "We have more staff to put to the task, which is reflective of us employing about 500 more staff over the (past 12 months.

"While we would want no one to wait any longer than they have to, the reality is at times there are waiting times that we would prefer people didn't have to experience.

"All I can say is our emergency department is fully staffed for the work that it does."

Mr Faulkner said he didn't believe there had been any issues or concerns regarding staff working overtime or double shifts.

"From time to time there are always, and always have been and probably always will be, times when it's a bit more demanding," he said.

"But I don't believe there has been any particular issues or concerns. We've been able to source adequate staffing as a general rule."

Bendigo Health's annual report also included an $84.8 million deficit in the overall net result for the 2018-19 financial year.

Mr Faulkner said it was a one-off deficit related to the Public Private Partnership building and land revaluation performed by the Valuer-General Victoria.

"It's nothing to do with profit and loss," he said. 'It's essentially an accounting matter related to revaluation of new hospital building.

"In our second year of the new hospital there is this one-off accounting treatment that deals with building revaluation. So essentially it is an accounting matter that doesn't go to the question of our operational performance.

"That number ($84.8 million) should be a one-off to do with the cost of financing the new hospital. So it's one off revaluation.

"To my understanding it will not recur and there will be nothing like it in future years."

Mr Faulker said Bendigo Health's ability manage the growth in demand was good news.

"At the end of the day we're here to serve," he said. "The overall quality and safety performances have been very sound.

"We did have improvements in a number of quality, safety and access indicators."

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