The Otago District Health Board is investigating buying a $250,000 machine used by neurosurgeons because hiring it is proving too costly.
Group manager for emergency medicine and surgery services Dr Colleen Coop said the machine, known as a Stealth, was a navigational system for the brain used by some neurosurgeons, including a locum employed by the board.
It was hired on a case-by-case basis and had cost the board $30,000 over two months.
Over a whole year, it was possible hire could cost as much as $200,000, when the machine itself cost about $250,000.
Business analyst Grant Paris told the board's monthly hospital advisory committee meeting the equipment was being requested by locum neurosurgeons as a prerequisite for their employment.
Plans for it had been removed from the "limited capital budget", but this now needed to be reconsidered, he said.
