A departing chief executive at the country's largest district health board says DHBs must live within their means.
Garry Smith, who is stepping down from the Auckland District Health Board, battled a $100 million deficit during many of his nine years in the role.
Auckland District Health Board has a budget of almost $2 billion a year and employs 10,000 staff.
Mr Smith says setting priorities and engaging all employees in the problem enabled the DHB to break even in 2008 and sustain that position.
He says there is an urgent need to find new and different ways of doing things, to get better value from health funding in future.
Mr Smith's next role is heading the Selwyn Foundation aged care provider.
