Dr Chamberlain said it was realised after the 2013 census that there were thousands more people living within in its area than previously thought. He believed that had cost the board $29.4 million in funding over the last three years. He calculated that current funding was $8.4 million short of what it should be based on population.
The Ministry of Health said Northland's funding had increased by almost five per cent each year over the past three years, more than any other DHB in the country.
Meanwhile Dr Chamberlain told staff that irrespective of the board's funding negotiations, it needed the assistance to maintain their own health and wellbeing, to provide safe, high-quality care, to improve the way they work and to be as frugal as possible with scarce resources.
"The quality of care that many of you provide is remarkable, and as Janice Wilson, the CEO of the Health Quality and Safety Commission said when she visited, from a patient safety and quality point of view, this is a very different organisation to a few years ago," he wrote.
"I do recognise the toll this can take, and this year our biggest priority is your wellbeing."
He believed the funding system was one of the best in the world, supposedly providing for the number of people in the region as well as the nature of the population.
"It has science behind it, based on the cost of consuming health services, and is a very fair system as long as the principles and rules that govern it are adhered to," he wrote.
"The biggest driver of funding is the (population), and as we all know, our population is growing rapidly.
In addition, because we are either first or second in New Zealand for rurality, percentage aged over 65 years, percentage Maori, and level of poverty and unmet need, this drives significant health demand which all of you are experiencing every day in your work.
"It also results in an increase in cost to service our population, and hence should result in a larger share of population-based funding."
In reality, evidence of under-funding was very clear in every spreadsheet received from the ministry. Northland, the only region in this position, was actually subsidising a number of DHBs that were receiving more than their population-based funding share because their populations were either declining or not growing.
"It is essential that we can show that we are not simply putting our hands out, but have been, and are, doing everything possible to improve access and provide excellent, high-value health care," he said.
