A more frequent shuttle service for Otago District Health Board staff travelling between Wakari and Dunedin hospitals, which begins this week, may save about $60,000 a year.
Regional chief financial officer Robert Mackway-Jones said it would be hard to know what the saving might be until the new system had been in place for a year.
It was likely to be about $50,000-$60,000, he said.
About $70,000 a year of the board's $150,000 taxi bill related to mental health staff and it was thought that most of that would be travel between Wakari and Dunedin hospitals.
Staff had suggested increasing the shuttle service to save taxi fares, when they were asked for money-saving ideas earlier this year.
The new service, which begins tomorrow, will run from each hospital every half hour, between 7.45am and 5pm, extending the existing service which runs four times a day.
Property services manager Warren Taylor said there would be four drivers working on the shuttle service.
While the service was predominantly for staff, if there were spare seats on the 12-seater vehicle, able-bodied patients needing to travel between the hospitals could also use it.
There are no baby or child car seats available.
The drivers were already employed by the board, but their duties had been reorganised in line with changes to services provided to some elderly patients.
Mr Mackway-Jones said introducing the revamped service this week had saved the job of one driver, who would have been made redundant following those changes.
Until now, some patients attending the Gibson Rehabilitation Centre at Dunedin Hospital had been collected from their homes and dropped off.
But the Gibson Community Rehabilitation Service will now provide home-based rehabilitation for such patients, focusing on increasing their independence and integrating them into their local communities.
Mental health and community services group manager Elaine Chisnall said as most people would be seen in their own homes, the service would no longer provide transport for the small number asked to attend the centre.
Mr Taylor said use of the shuttle service would be monitored to see how well it was used and whether it was meeting people's needs.
