New data has revealed that 56 per cent of triage level two patients were seen on time at Bendigo hospital, compared to 75 per cent across Australia and 67 per cent across Victoria.

It marked a drop of 27 per cent over the past five financial years in that category for the hospital, based on the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data for 2020-2019 released on Thursday.

Read more: Bendigo Health's latest performance figures revealed

Triage level two, known as "emergency", is the second most serious category of patient that can present, following only resuscitation - or triage one - patients.

A hundred per cent of resuscitation patients at Bendigo hospital were seen on time, consistent with rates across the nation.

Triage two patients require treatment within 10 minutes of presentation, the AIHW states.

The figures come despite a year-on-year improvement in treatment times shown in the recent quarterly performance data from the Victorian Agency for Health Information.

Rates of treatment timeliness for Bendigo hospital patients in less serious categories were roughly on par with the average across Victoria.

The Victorian average was a two or three percentage points lower than the nationwide average in each of these categories.

Other news:

AIHW data revealed an Australia-wide decrease of 1.4 emergency department presentations in Bendigo in 2019-20 than the previous year.

In Victoria the presentations dropped by 4 per cent, the lowest rate in Australia.

In contrast, Bendigo hospital's emergency department presentations only dropped by about 0.8 per cent in 2019-20.

Across Australia Monday was the day with the most ED presentations, chalking up 15.5 per cent of the total.

Late morning was the most frequent time for presentations, with 13 per cent made between 10am and noon.

A Bendigo Health spokesperson said the group had experienced a continued increase in Emergency Department presentations.

"As a result, we are treating sicker patients and more from throughout the region as we fulfil our role as a major regional referral centre," they said.

"During the response to COVID-19 Bendigo Health has been running two emergency departments, one with a focus on respiratory presentations."

This story has been updated to include comment from Bendigo Health.

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