It will follow an earlier meeting in November at the Waitaki Boys' High School auditorium which was attended by 180 people. It was held after Waitaki District Health Services, the company that owns and operates Oamaru Hospital, came under fire from the public for its food services review and the way it was communicated.
The hospital's kitchen has since closed and from January 14 meals have been prepared at Iona Enliven Care Home and Hospital.
Waitaki District Health Services chief executive Ruth Kibble said the second meeting would take place on January 29 between 7.30pm and 8.30pm at the Oamaru Opera House.
The focus of the meeting will be a presentation on rural hospitals and what people can expect from them, led by Oamaru Hospital clinical director Dr Pragati Gautama.
Mrs Kibble said the meeting was part of a series of forums previously agreed to by the board.
"Following the meeting last year, after listening to the community, I wished to create an opportunity for open dialogue with our community. As such, there will be a general business section to respond to questions from the public.''
She said the first meeting was "very beneficial'' for her and the Waitaki District Council-owned company.
"We were able to hear and understand the concerns that the community had and were able to provide an explanation to areas that were concerning to the public.
"We learned at that meeting also that there is a lot of misinformation circulating and these forums give us an opportunity to correct this. I hope that over time the conversation can begin to move to hearing ideas and suggestions from our community.''
While she said there were fears in the community "about losing or downgrading either the hospital or any of our other health services'', it was important the public understood the company's commitment to ensuring services were sustainable.
"Oamaru Hospital has not significantly changed how we organise ourselves and deliver services since the shift from the hill almost 20 years ago. As such, in some areas we have not been fully benefiting from current thinking, trends and technology, so we are using the skills and fresh eyes that the new leadership team bring to the organisation to make sure we are keeping up to date.''
