The Southern District Health Board is cutting by half the number of times its main committee meets.
Chairman Joe Butterfield presented the revised schedule for 2012 at yesterday's board meeting in Invercargill.
No report had been prepared on ramifications of the change.
The hospitals' advisory committee deals with patient volumes, staffing issues, service changes and maintenance issues.
The move follows that of the combined public health and disability committee, which stopped meeting monthly at the start of the year.
Board and hospitals' advisory committee member Richard Thomson pointed out that for any committee member missing a meeting, it would be "four months between drinks".
Mr Butterfield said he hoped members would make an effort to attend.
Under the new schedule, staff would be under less pressure to prepare reports. Essential hospital information could still be reported to the board every month.
The hospitals' advisory committee and the public health and disability committee would meet on alternate months.
Committee chairmen Paul Menzies (hospitals' advisory committee) and Dr Malcolm Macpherson were confident their committees could handle the change, Mr Butterfield said.
He also suggested the iwi governance committee stopped meeting every month, but said it was not his place to be prescriptive about it.
Kaye Crowther, a member of the public health and disability committee, was not entirely happy about her committee's reduced schedule, as she believed it had engendered a lack of continuity this year.
After the meeting, Mr Butterfield told the Otago Daily Times meetings would be longer and more thorough, meaning improved governance. At present, monthly meetings tended to be rushed.
Cost cutting was not a consideration in dropping meetings, he said.
