Southern District Health Board improved its deficit ranking nationally from second to eighth in the last financial year.
At the beginning of last financial year, it expected to have a deficit of almost $15 million, but ended the year with a much smaller $1.63 million amount.
The largest deficit from the 20 boards was as expected from Capital and Coast DHB, although this was more than $6 million lower than the estimate of $33.38 million.
Southern's second place slot was taken by the West Coast with a deficit of $7.13 million, a similar result to its previous year.
Canterbury, which before the earthquakes had been planning to break even, ended the year with a small $40,000 deficit.
The other two South Island DHBs recorded surpluses - South Canterbury of $1.04 million and Nelson Marlborough $711,000.
Nationally, boards were ahead of their budgets by $56.39 million, with 11 of the 20 boards finishing in the black, when only seven had planned to either break even or record a surplus.
The total deficit was $20.08 million when $76.47 million had been expected.
In the previous financial year, Southern had the second highest deficit on $14.77 million and the total deficit for all boards was $101.87 million.
That year, six boards finished the year in surplus.
