But he told a Legislative Council inquiry into the Health and Human Services' cost reduction strategies that they must not be the ``mad dash for cash'' that had occurred this financial year.

``They would have to be made sustainably,'' he said.

Mr Kirwan said that this year's budget cuts had been different from others because they had been ordered as cash savings by a state government low on funds.

The region had been told that it had to be debt free in preparation for the start of a new, federally-initiated style of health services funding on July 1 as well as meet cost reduction requirements, Mr Kirwan said.

That meant that health services had been forced to achieve savings in less than one financial year that would usually have taken at least three or four years, he said.

Mr Kirwan was still confident that the LGH and Northern Area Health Service would meet its budget demands.

At the same time there needed to be a start made on long-term planning using strategies like telehealth and the NBN network for more efficient models of care.

Mr Kirwan said that his senior staff had already started developing its winter strategy modelling in light of curtailed services due to budget cuts.

Mr Kirwan warned that strategies could only be developed on existing data and could not take into account something like a pandemic outbreak.