Joining the Otago and Southland District Health Boards would give the best opportunity for health services to be delivered in the most effective way, boards' chief executive Brian Rousseau told the first consultation meeting on the merger proposal yesterday.
"If we sit back and do nothing, that, in my view would result in service cuts and loss of service."
He was responding to questions from Julie Howard, one of the eight people, apart from board representatives and media, who attended the hour-long public meeting at the Dunedin Centre.
A similar meeting in Oamaru last night attracted 10 people.
Ms Howard expressed concern a merger would mean cuts to services and asked if the services in both provinces would remain the same.
Mr Rousseau said the intention was to keep them but guarantees could not be made because it was not known what future funding was.
The consultation was not about whether services would be reduced but about whether the boards should be joined.
Maniototo Health Services chairman Gerald Dowling spoke in favour of the move, drawing attention to the need for clinicians in sub specialties to have access to a sufficient number of patients to sustain services.
It was important for the boards not to move too fast.
In response to a question about representation, Otago board chairman Errol Millar said the last election showed that rural Otago was over-represented compared with urban Otago, while the opposite occurred in Southland.
In Oamaru, local hospital maternity centre co-ordinator Pat Robertson questioned what the situation would be for a mother with a pre-term baby, if there were no beds in the neonatal intensive care unit in Dunedin.
She asked if they would face being transferred to Invercargill.
Mr Rousseau said in that instance, it was likely they would be transferred to Christchurch.
Colleen Moore, of Waitaki District Health Services, said one concern was with centralisation.
There had been centralisation of service co-ordinators, which would affect staff in Oamaru, and she asked if this was the beginning of more centralisation.
Mr Rousseau said he believed it was the opposite - decentralisation.
