How to fill spots of 15 midwives on maternity leave at once? $12k bonuses

But the "stunning" early success of the $12,000 sign on bonuses is not nearly enough, hospital leaders say.

Even if all 15 midwives currently on maternity leave came back tomorrow, Bendigo Health would still have to keep up with increasing demand for its birthing suites.

The health service is not rushing midwives back from maternity leave, new chief executive Eileen Hannagan says.

She wants them to have the flexibility to meet their family's needs.

"As soon as you fill a spot [in the maternity service] you grow, and then you need more," Ms Hannagan said.

The city's public hospital currently handles 2000 births a year and supports other maternal health services throughout the region.

Ms Hannagan said.Bendigo Health deliberately searched in metropolitan areas and internationally.

"We are very clear that we do not want to take midwives from other regional centres. We talk often about the ethics of robbing Peter to pay Paul," she said.

Bendigo Health was also keen to recruit audiologists.

"Particularly with the number of births we have, we need to be able to do timely testing to make sure anything that could contribute to a future learning deficit is picked up early," Ms Hannagan said.

Ms Hannagan sat down for an interview with the Bendigo Advertiser at something of a cross-roads moment for Bendigo Health.

The chief executive is three months into her time at the helm and deep into consultations with staff about ways the health service might evolve over her tenure.

She and her leadership team are also reaching out to the community for feedback.

"We really want to make sure our priorities are our communities' priorities. We don't want to go in saying 'we can do this, this and this' rather than asking 'what do you need?'," Ms Hannagan said.

"We are part of the community and we are here for it."

Decisions made by the service have the capacity to shape the entire region thanks to its geographic spread and sheer size - it is one of Bendigo's largest employers.

Ms Hannagan said one focus is getting patients in and out of Bendigo's hospital faster,

"Every ambulance that waits in that bay to unload is one less out in the community caring for people," she said.

Bendigo Health has also recently revamped its "discharge lounge" - a specialist area where people no longer needing clinical care can wait with specialist health professionals until they can get a ride home.

"We have quite a lot of people who are well waiting to go home and the lounge is where they can get their medications and get ready for their discharge," Ms Hannagan said.

"That way their bed's clean and ready to be filled."

Ms Hannagan's links to Bendigo go back to her childhood. Her mother was born and raised in the city and the family often visited for holidays.

A nurse by background, Ms Hannagan worked her way into leadership positions, most recently with Sydney cancer treatment centre Chris O'Brien Lifehouse.