South Island district health boards have come up with a process to cope with possible disagreements among them as they move to develop shared services.
The new chairman of the group, Otago District Health Board chairman Errol Millar, on Friday said it was believed its conclusion on decision-making was the first for a group of its type.
Across the country boards are being expected to collaborate more closely over service provision, but as Otago and Southland chief executive Brian Rousseau pointed out recently, since boards were separate entities, difficulties could arise when all did not agree on an action.
Under existing legislation only shareholding ministers could force a board into making decisions with which it did not agree.
It would be impractical to expect the ministers to get involved in everything the boards could not agree on and there needed to be a mechanism to allow things to proceed, he said.
The procedure sets out decision-making principles, including what type of information is to be provided before decisions are made and the amount of notice required.
Decision-making is to be by consensus, but where this is not possible, independent input or mediation will be used, or the matter may be escalated, to the shareholding ministers if necessary.
Mr Millar said it was important to have a proper process to follow in the event of disagreements.
He was unanimously appointed as chairman of the group at a meeting in Christchurch yesterday, replacing Joe Butterfield who is stepping down from the South Canterbury board chairmanship in January.
