The information is provided by the board's TrendCare software, which is changing the way nurses are deployed, as it shows where resources are needed.
TrendCare maps the care nurses provide, and the requirements of patients, in real-time.
Overall, nurses provided 5.62 hours per patient each day, compared with a required 5.15 hours (so far this financial year).
The committee was also shown data from individual wards. The most stark difference between resources and need was Southland Hospital's critical care ward, where nurses provided 16.33 hours against a required 11.77 hours. Chief nursing and midwifery director Leanne Samuel said the board was ''a tad hamstrung'' in that particular ward, because patient numbers were often very low, and the ward had a compulsory minimum staffing level.
In general, the data showed southern nurses provided an appropriate amount of care, Ms Samuel said.
The care-required figure is determined by entering patient need into the TrendCare system, which provided an average for each ward.
In Dunedin Hospital's 8A ward, nurses provided 5.23 hours per patient daily compared with a required 4.59 hours.
In Dunedin's intensive care unit, 25.28 hours were provided, compared with a required 24.95 hours. The health board used Australasian/Singapore recommended care hours as a benchmark.
Board chairman Joe Butterfield said the overseas benchmarks had such wide bands of ideal care hours that it was difficult to tell if Southern fared well or not.
Ms Samuel said the overseas figures had wide bands because the countries' wards varied hugely in terms of capacity, equipment, size, and patient mix.
Chief executive Carole Heatly, a former English National Health Service chief, said the recent report into the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal, where between 400 and 1200 patients are thought to have died through lack of care, highlighted a lack of nurses. The data presented yesterday showed Southern DHB had adequate nursing staff, she said.
''This should give us some comfort we have enough nursing hours to meet the needs of patients.''
