Board funding and finance general manager Robert Mackway-Jones said the challenge would be in matching demand or expectations to the actual money available.
Such service planning was vital and it was important unrealistic expectations were not created.
The work will also look at how inequity between Otago and Southland services and urban and rural populations can be addressed.
In the next three years it was expected funding increases would be at about 2.6% a year.
Within that percentage, inflation was expected to account for about 1.7% leaving only .9% "demographic funding" to allow for growth.
That would give the board $6.3 million, but the board expects to lose another $3 million in the next financial year because of an expected drop in its tertiary adjustor funding. (This money has been distributed under population-based funding to recognise complex services provided by seven district health boards regionally or nationally, but changes are being made to the way it is calculated.)
Changes to KiwiSaver also meant a further $2 million to $3 million reduction in funding next year, which meant the board's "real ability to fund will be very limited unless further cost reductions occur".
The funding planning for medical and surgical services would support the planning for shared services across the region, Mr Mackway-Jones said.
He did not see it as crucial to the clinical groups working together, but from the funding perspective it was designed to pick up inequities of funding or delivery of services in Otago and Southland.
One of the aims of the project is to bring coherence and some uniformity for additional funding from the different board services.
The project will involve "extended dialogue" with managers and clinical staff in each of the services in both Otago and Southland.
This feedback would then be used to make adjustments to the proposed levels of funding, he said.
