He was asked to comment on the pressure on district health board chief executives following the news of the resignation of Capital and Coast board's chief executive Ken Whelan this week.
Mr Whelan, whose board - like Southern's - has struggled with large deficits, told his staff he was unable to cut any more costs despite government pressure to do so, NZPA reported.
He was unable to find any more efficiencies within the board without hurting services, he said.
Mr Millar said the Southern board had taken all the "low-hanging fruit around the place" and was getting down to having to make the "hard calls".
He was very aware of the constant pressure the board was under to save money and the impact that could have on chief executive Brian Rousseau.
There were "all sorts of stresses and strains" in a job like Mr Rousseau's and, while he did not make a big issue of it, he tried to give praise where it was due and to make sure his chief executive was able to keep some balance in his life.
And that applied to other staff.
At the public meeting about neurosurgery services in Dunedin this week Mr Rousseau referred to the loneliness of his role.
Mr Millar said he and Mr Rousseau sometimes joked about being "lonely together".
Southern is expected to end the past financial year almost on budget, but continues to grapple with how to break even within four years, as expected by the Minister of Health.
Its budget for the current year is yet to be approved.
At this month's board meeting Mr Rousseau described the June end-of-year figure, which is expected to be $300,000 higher than the board's budgeted $15.2 million deficit, as a "fantastic overall result".
Earlier, the board, which had a budget of $802 million, had forecast that it could exceed the planned deficit by several million dollars. Mr Rousseau congratulated staff at both Dunedin and Southland hospitals for their hard work in delivering the amount of elective surgery required for maximum funding.
Mr Millar agreed. There was often much negativity about health services in the South, "but the fact is we do some things extremely well and this is one of them".
Finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones said while the board could get some comfort from the final result, the deficit was still a multimillion-dollar one.
"We're all aware of what that means in terms of services - trying to balance the numbers with service delivery."
There had been some "big-ticket financial items moving at the 11th hour" which showed how difficult forecasting and budgeting could be in the board setting.
Among the items which had a negative impact on the budget were $3.7 million extra being spent on home support, $1.6 million in patient travel and accommodation, $2.6 million more than planned for hospital level care for the elderly and $2.9 million for a recalculation of employee entitlements.
The way these entitlements were calculated had to be changed in accordance with Crown accounting policy to ensure consistency across the country.
Although the advice was only issued in late June, it had to be applied to valuations taken in April.
The change meant it was easy to identify expected annual increases for retiring gratuities. This would add up to an extra $1 million to the board's budget annually but was not allowed for in the current draft of this year's budget, Mr Mackway-Jones said.
Among the items which came in under budget were residential rest-home costs ($1 million), KiwiSaver ($2 million), management and administration salaries ($2.1 million) and lower-than-budgeted wages in some areas ($1 million).
The board's capital charges were $1.9 million lower than expected, but this is unlikely to be the case this financial year when the board spends nearly $40 million on capital works, including moving the acute psychiatric ward at Dunedin Hospital to Wakari Hospital and revamping the neonatal intensive-care unit.
At the meeting, member Richard Thomson asked if management had considered putting in a revised plan to the ministry with additional costs associated with the possible shift of neurosurgery to Christchurch.
Mr Rousseau said this would not be done at this stage.
