It is one of more than 200 money-saving ideas from board staff who were asked by management to come up with ways of saving 5% on their budgets, or $1 million for the new financial year.
Another suggestion was making plain envelopes available so departments did not use franked envelopes for internal mail. The existing system did not make sense, Mrs Blake said, although she was unsure at this stage how much money would be saved by changing it.
Mrs Blake emphasised staff suggestions had not yet been fully evaluated for feasibility and cost reduction, but some, such as stopping taxi use between the hospitals and using a board shuttle instead, made immediate sense.
At a recent hospital advisory committee meeting members were told taxi costs were $55,000 over budget. However, this was offset by lower than expected costs for other travel and accommodation.
Mrs Blake said the Otago board had its own shuttle, which ran between Wakari and Dunedin Hospitals, but its irregularity meant staff often used taxis. By using its own shuttle more, the board might have to pay an extra staff salary, but it could save up to $150,000.
Mrs Blake said she had been "blown away" by the range of ideas presented.
Another idea was programming photocopiers to automatically double-side when printing, coupled with increasing efforts to reduce paper use.
One area where savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars might be possible was in travel and accommodation.
Ideas included greater use of video-conferencing for senior staff required to attend meetings elsewhere; ensuring travel occurred on the same day where possible, even if it meant arriving late; and introducing a centralised process for attending meetings and conferences.
A board shuttle between Otago and Southland instead of staff using cars was also suggested.
Other ideas included reducing catering at some meetings and asking people to bring lunch; ensuring laboratory and radiology tests were not duplicated; increasing the use of the pneumatic tube system which transferred such things as blood tests to the laboratory; and ensuring disposable instruments which could be sterilised and reused were.
Mrs Blake said the regional executive management team would consider the list to see which ideas merited further consideration.
If the board is to get its district annual plan approved, it must reduce its projected deficit of $9.7 million by $2.7 million, Health Minister Tony Ryall has advised. The board has already shown it is keen to reduce costs in community medicines and care for the elderly.
