Otago and Southland district health boards expect to save about $300,000 to $350,000 a year by managing property maintenance together from next month, regional chief financial officer Robert Mackway-Jones said.
Otago board property services manager Warren Taylor will head the new regional setup.
Mr Mackway-Jones said the move to the regional structure coincided with the expiry of a Southland maintenance contract held by Spotless Services.
The work done by that organisation would be done in-house from the end of November, and many of the trades staff who had previously done the work would be employed by the board from December.
The regionalisation of property services is the latest move in the collaboration between the two boards.
They share a chief executive, have regional management of information technology, finance, planning and funding, human resources, purchasing and procurement.
Work is also being done towards increasing the number of shared clinical services.
Cardiac surgery and the Southern blood and cancer service are already run regionally.
