Car pooling and stricter rules have helped reduce the Southern District Health Board staff travel bill, acting finance and funding general manager David Dickson says.
However, board members' expenses are up 54%, presumably because of combined full board and hospital advisory committee meetings which started in May.
The Otago Daily Times requested the southern board's travel and accommodation expenses for the first nine months of this year, and for last year, when the boards were separate but had a shared regional executive team.
Staff spent $562,379 on domestic travel (excludes training and conferences), in the first nine months of the year, compared with $662,141 last year, a drop of 15%.
This is despite the merger of Otago and Southland health boards on May 1 and some staff restructuring to create fewer roles to service the whole region.
When asked to itemise expenses, the board requested a fee of up to $2356 depending on the time taken, which the ODT declined.
Mr Dickson said travel costs were down partly because staff were expected to car pool where possible to cut mileage claims. Travel also had to be approved by the chief executive's office, rather than the staff member's manager. An effort had been made to reduce costs because of the board's financial position.
However, a major project last year to implement a shared payroll information system likely increased the travel bill for that period, Mr Dickson said.
Accommodation and meal costs increased to $281,731 this year, compared with $256,404 last year.
Mr Dickson acknowledged this was partly a result of more region-wide roles, including a single media liaison officer for the whole DHB since the start of the year, and a combined finance and funding regional role since June. Previously, there were two media liaison officers, and a finance chief in Invercargill, and planning and funding chief in Dunedin.
Plans to gradually regionalise clinical areas to implement the board's "one service, many sites" ethos would probably see travel-related expenses increase.
Mr Dickson said the board had not considered buying more property for staff accommodation in Invercargill or Dunedin, but chose preferred accommodation providers about 12 months ago to get the best possible deals. Expenses were incurred in Wellington and other centres as well.
Board members' expenses climbed steeply in the first nine months of the year, costing the cash-strapped DHB $42,791, up from $27,734 last year. The board's expenses are expressed as a single cost, with no distinction between travel and accommodation/meals.
The increase is likely due to combined full board meetings and hospital advisory committee meetings, alternating between Dunedin and Invercargill, since the merger.
Some members say video-conferencing of meetings is not the same as attending in person, and others have complained about the sound and picture quality. The board is planning to upgrade the video-conferencing equipment.
