More than 1200 patients, family members and staff have registered for the Southern District Health Board's "listening sessions'' that start in Dunedin tomorrow.
A London consultant is being flown to New Zealand to run the sessions and arrives today.
In a statement, the health board said it was pleased with the "fantastic response'' to its initiative, which it says will be used to improve services.
As well as Dunedin, sessions would be held in Oamaru, Queenstown, Alexandra, Invercargill and Wanaka.
The Dunedin and Invercargill sessions were full, but there were places available in the other centres.
The board ran an online survey for those who could not make the sessions, which was completed by 374 patients and 1424 staff.
The new chief medical officer, Dr Nigel Millar, who starts on Monday, will attend the sessions, along with chief executive Carole Heatly and the commissioner team that runs the board.
