Data from the Victorian Agency for Health Information shows that in the first three months of this year, Ballarat patients in the most critical category waited a median time of 15 days. In the quarter before that, it was 14 days.

The figures are worse than the Victorian median - and the reverse of the state trend - which saw a 10 day wait in January-March and an 11 day wait in September-December.

As the pandemic threat eased, the category one load on the hospital has also gone up. A total of 573 patients had urgent surgery at the Drummond Street campus between January 1 and March 30, compared to 482 in the previous three months and just 336 in the first quarter of 2021.

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Health Minister Martin Foley was in Ballarat on Wednesday and said 100 per cent of category one surgeries were being done within the 30-day target.

"We have a $1.5 billion elective surgery catch up plan - and this is statewide," he said.

"It's directing unprecedented resources to not just catching up, but redesigning the way we deal with elective surgery."

The data comes as the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures that show overall hospitalisations were down in the early stages of the pandemic, but rebounded last financial year.

"The significant increase in hospitalisations at the national level can be largely attributed to the easing of restrictions following the first waves of the pandemic," AIHW spokesperson Adrian Webster said.

"This particularly applies to restrictions on elective (or non-emergency) surgery."

"The increase also reflects efforts to clear the backlog of surgeries that had been created the previous year.

"The largest increase in hospitalisations was for principal diagnoses related to diseases of the eye - at 19 per cent - likely related to catch-up cataract surgery."

At 785 beds, the only regional Victorian hospital close to the size of Ballarat Base is Bendigo Health at 734.

The number of category one surgery patients at the Central Victorian public hospital has waxed and waned dramatically over the past year, with 443 treated in the first quarter of 2022, a whopping 601 between July and September, and just 411 for the first quarter of 2021.

But when it comes to category two patients, there's been a huge spike in waiting times at Ballarat - and statewide - this year.

The data shows 99 people in the second-highest category did not get treatment within 90-day target, compared to 68 in the previous quarter.

Statewide, there were 4724 patients overdue in the March quarter, up from 3405 in the December quarter. Again, Bendigo went against the trend.

It had 115 overdue category two patients this year - and 261 the quarter before.

Mr Foley said non-category-one surgery had been paused at various times over the past two years to keep hospitals safe and free-up resources top deal with the pandemic.

"We will throw unprecedented resources of people and support to an already stretched healthcare system. We've got eight rapid access hubs across the state - we've got further delivery of public-private partnerships."

Ballarat Health Services merged on November 1 with campuses in Horsham, Edenhope and Stawell, whose data was kept separate in the report.

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