Canterbury’s top doctors are calling on health chiefs to put patients first as they meet to discuss how to save $56 million in the next year.

The Thursday meeting comes after the resignations of five senior Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) executives in recent weeks, including chief executive David Meates, who gave no reason for leaving.

The others were chief people officer Michael Frampton, funding and decision support executive director Carolyn Gullery, chief financial operator Justine White, and chief medical officer and leader of the region’s Covid-19 response Sue Nightingale.

The board has a deficit of about $180m – the largest of any DHB in the country.

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Meanwhile, senior doctors released an open letter late on Wednesday that said the “unprecedented leadership crisis” was caused by the CDHB’s lack of transparency and competency with its decision-making.

They have called on the board to be fully transparent, put patient care at the centre of decisions, and act as advocates for the people of Canterbury, not for the minister of health.

“We expect better from the board and we expect better from the Government,” the letter said.

It was signed by Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton, Canterbury Hospitals’ medical staff association chair Dr Alistair Humphrey, and Papanui GP Dr Vanessa Weenink.

Senior leaders at the CDHB have already sent a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying they had lost confidence in the board and would like her to intervene.

At Thursday’s meeting, health board members must decide whether to approve the $56m in savings, which is part of a broader plan to tackle the DHB’s nearly $180m deficit.

Board chair Sir John Hansen told Stuff the proposed cuts in the draft proposal would be “very challenging” to achieve, but the board would not accept any reduction in the standard of health services.

The board last met at an emergency meeting on August 4, after which Meates’ resignation was announced.

Hansen has consistently declined to comment on why Meates is leaving, but Stuff understands pressure to reduce the deficit by the board and the ministry was behind the move.

At the Tuesday Club, a regular Christchurch discussion group run by former mayor Garry Moore, Hansen addressed various issues the health board is facing.

He presented an upbeat take on the slew of resignations saying they could result in a “fresh” and “outside view”.

He said management had been through “hell on earth”.

Asked how he proposed to make the necessary cuts and get the annual plan signed off by the minister of health without cutting services, he said it would require innovation.

“We have to look at different ways of working … how much further we go is up in the air a bit with the reforms that are coming in.”