While the Southern board is one of few boards to have already published its annual report for last financial year, a perusal of the available information from the past two years shows the next highest salary package was paid by the small Whanganui District Health Board.
It is understood this $630,000-$640,000 was paid to a sole-charge radiologist in the financial year ended in June last year.
The specialty which attracted the highest pay in the Southern board has not been identified, but it is understood the recent Otago Daily Times article about board salaries prompted considerable speculation among staff, including senior clinicians.
The records for the country's 20 boards did not always spell out whether the top salaries were being paid to chief executives or medical or dental staff, but after Whanganui, the board with the next highest salary was Hutt where an unspecified employee received $590,000-$599,999 in the 2009-10 financial year.
In the South Island, the top rate paid by Southern last year was well ahead of that paid in Canterbury where the top medical-dental salary was $500,000-$509,000.
In the previous year the small West Coast board paid a medical/dental employee $440,000- $449,999 and that year Nelson-Marlborough had one unspecified employee in the next bracket up - $450,000-$460,000.
South Canterbury paid its top rate, $310,000-$320,000, to one of its clinical staff last financial year.
While there has been no explanation of the top rates paid, it is likely that they reflect the difficulty some boards have in attracting essential staff and the fact that in some areas there may be fewer opportunities for clinicians to make money in the private sector.
Questions posed to the acting Southern District Health Board chief executive Lexie O'Shea about this two weeks ago, drew the response yesterday that the board would not be commenting on the questions "as in other years".
Among the questions asked, which had not been asked in previous years, was whether Mrs O'Shea had any general comments about whether the board was in a more difficult position than many other boards when it comes to attracting clinicians to hard-to-staff specialties, having to pay higher amounts than might be paid elsewhere simply to fill necessary positions. And, if this were the case, whether there was any recognition of this in the allocation of funding.
Health Minister Tony Ryall's only answer to questions on the issue was that the salary was a very large amount of money, and "I can only presume the DHB thinks this person is extremely valuable. Ministers don't get involved in individual salary decisions".
Executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Ian Powell said he did not wish to comment on individual salaries and suggested it could not automatically be assumed the person employed by Southern could not work in the private sector.
He said the association position was that it was better to improve salaries and other conditions across the board rather than in crucial areas.
"It is both more equitable and more effective" and also reflected more of a long-term strategic direction, he said.
