While not all contracts have been settled, including the one for junior doctors, the board estimates it will spend about $163.5 million on wages compared with a budget of around $159.5 million.
It anticipates the junior doctors' settlement could be $300,000 more than the budget of $18,160,000.
About half of the anticipated overrun, $2,114,000, is due to the recent settlement of the senior doctors' contract.
This figure will be reduced by about $500,000 by extra funding for the senior doctors provided by the Government, board chief financial officer Robert Mackway-Jones said yesterday.
The cost of payments to the senior doctors during the strikes is expected to be more than the reduction in the payroll from not paying the striking doctors, business analyst Grant Paris told the board hospital advisory committee this week.
Controversy surrounded pay rates for senior doctors working during the strikes when Otago and Southland board chief executive Brian Rousseau indicated the boards could not afford to offer the recommended national rates, which ranged from $250 to $500 an hour.
An agreement was reached with the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists whereby he would not unilaterally offer the national rates, but would pay them if doctors requested them.
The committee was told that efforts were made where possible to reduce staffing costs during the strikes, with some staff prepared to take annual leave at short notice.
The Otago and Southland boards are among those praised this week by the ASMS executive director Ian Powell for responding positively to advice regarding prompt payment of the $10,000 lump sum retention payment the senior doctors are to receive as part of their contract settlement.
After the senior doctors, the next largest expected wages overrun for the year is for medical radiology technologists, which will exceed the budget of about $4.5 million by almost $800,000.
The only area where the budget is not expected to be exceeded is in nursing, expected to be $82,000 ahead of the $63,241,000 forecast, mainly due to the timing of the nurses' settlement.
