The director of emergency medicine training was tasked with coordinating the movement of hundreds of patients from the former Bendigo Hospital building to the new site in 2017.

"I was coordinating ambulances and patient movements and making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be and it was a six month project," Dr McKenzie said.

His coordination and management skills continue to be honed in his work with Adult Retrieval Victoria as a doctor for Ambulance Victoria.

The emergency medicine consultant has travelled the length and breadth of the state in helicopter, plane or car to tend to some of the state's sickest.

"I'm passionate about ensuring that everyone that lives in regional Australia has the same access to healthcare and high quality healthcare as people in the city," Dr McKenzie said.

A desire to help others has been ingrained in Dr McKenzie since his youth, where he chose to pursue a career in medicine on the advice of family friends.

"I was going to be an engineer until halfway through year 12 and some family friends said that I'm good with people and should consider medicine instead," he said.

Dr McKenzie hasn't looked back and despite completing his medical training at the University of Melbourne, he has always maintained an affiliation with Bendigo and the wider region.

"My dad went to Swan Hill High School and that's where a lot of our extended family is based.

"I've got relatives right through the Loddon Mallee area from Swan Hill and Mildura to Sea Lake and St Arnaud.

Dr McKenzie visited Bendigo during his clinical training years at university and was an intern at Bendigo Hospital in 2001.

"I wouldn't want to work anywhere else in Victoria," Dr McKenzie said.

His role as a director of emergency medicine training sees him divide his time between administrative and clinical work, with the department coming along in leaps and bounds in recent times.

Last December, Bendigo Health's emergency department became accredited as a 24-month training site, ensuring junior doctors can do most of their emergency training in Bendigo.

"The accreditation is a culmination of a 10-year journey.

"The best way of describing how crucial it is, is to say that Bendigo Health's emergency department is functioning at the highest level that an emergency department can, in terms of clinical care, training and research," Dr McKenzie said.

When asked for how he'd like to see Bendigo Health's service provision improve, Dr McKenzie hoped Bendigo Hospital would one day become a tertiary hospital.

Tertiary hospitals treat and manage a full range of surgical subspecialties, with Bendigo Health presently offering only a subset of these at the moment.

"I would love for this hospital to be a place where all regional patients can be looked after locally so that there is less reliance on having to go to Melbourne.

"Some of that care people need is time critical, so to have immediate access to that level of care is important," Dr McKenzie said.

A father of three, Dr McKenzie shares his time between Melbourne, Bendigo and Daylesford.

"I've got a block of land where I plant lots of trees in Daylesford that's a place where I really like to spend some time.

"It's quiet time with a shed and some fencing and landscaping projects," Dr McKenzie said.

Speaking of his role in Bendigo, Dr McKenzie gives the region, its hospital and his job the tick of approval.

"There is nowhere better to work," he said.