South Island District Health Boards (DHBs) are getting together to plan long-term health services for the South Island.
The new initiative, called the South Island Health Services Plan, aimed to keep health services close to where people lived, while ensuring services were viable, West Coast DHB representative Wayne Turp said.
A steering group had been set up, made up by representatives from the South Island DHBs and the South Island Shared Services Agency (Sissal).
It was a great opportunity to move towards closer regional collaboration in key areas of clinical service delivery, Mr Turp said.
South Island health services planner Jan Barber said the planning process would look at what health services needed to look like in the future to ensure a strong, viable health system for the South Island.
"It's not about saying we can't provide a service, but more about how can we work together to provide the service," Ms Barber said.
South Canterbury (DHB) chief executive Chris Fleming, and lead chief executive for the project , said the plan was about improving quality, improving clinical networks and providing a supportive environment for medical staff.
"While at the same time ensuring services remain accessible to people throughout the South Island," he said.
