Board member Richard Thomson described the fact some patients were waiting 20 months for routine scans as "just dire", with both Dunedin and Southland hospitals experiencing difficulties.
The delays would be costing the board money for such instances as patients spending longer in hospital beds waiting for scans.
The board would need to decide if it should spend some money on addressing the problem, even if this was outside the budget.
The issue was of "sufficient seriousness" for the board to consider spending some money on it "from somewhere", he said.
Chief operating officer (Otago) Vivian Blake said she and her Southland counterpart, Lexie O'Shea, were working on a recovery plan to address the issues which resulted from a combination of an increased number of complex referrals and the aftermath of last year's industrial action by radiographers.
She anticipated it would cost money, but the existing situation was a clinical risk.
When chairman Joe Butterfield pressed her to say how long reversing the situation might take, asking if it would be six to 12 months, Mrs Blake said she could not answer that but she would "like to think so".
Mr Thomson noted that the board's provider arm (services directly provided by the board) was expected to be ahead of budget by the end of the year by $1.8 million, but this might not be possible if the board had to spend money to improve the scan waiting times.
At Dunedin Hospital at the end of December, patients were waiting 20 months for non-urgent MRI scans, 46 weeks for routine CT scans and 18 to 32 weeks for routine ultrasound scans.
