Speculation that Southern District Health Board staff are not taking as much annual leave as they should has not been borne out by detailed research.
At present, the board has a huge $28 million of leave liability on its balance sheet, of which $22.7 million is for annual leave.
Its budget assumes each staff member will take their annual allocation of leave each year.
In recent months, board members and staff have been discussing why the leave liability figure has been growing and speculated staff were not taking leave.
However, "inaugural data" on leave owing to the end of April and the amount of leave staff had taken in February, March and April did not support that theory, finance and funding general manager Robert Mackway-Jones said at a board meeting yesterday.
Staff were taking leave and by the end of April all staff categories had leave equal to or less than one year's entitlement.
Mr Mackway-Jones said he hoped staff would be able to generate a report covering the 12 months from April last year. Leave would continue to be analysed monthly from now on.
As time went on, a better picture of leave entitlements and leave taken would emerge, he said.
It was known staff took more leave in some months than others, he said.
For example, more leave was taken in January and February and less in the few months after that.
In April, the board's leave liability balance rose by $487,278, from $22.2 million to $22.7 million.
"When you have a lot of staff, you can see the monthly variances change quickly."
