Kathy Grant (62) was appointed to run the board last week by Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman, who sacked the board over its deficit.
Mrs Grant and her deputies were settling in this week, as fears emerged another board, the Canterbury District Health Board, may also be sacked over its financial position.
Dr Coleman has given Mrs Grant a free rein in how she operates, and as yet it is not known how hands-on she will be, and whether senior management will be closely supervised.
Mrs Grant is paid $1400 a day in the role but she said this week she still does not know how many days a month the job will require.
The commissioner team plans a series of visits around the region to glean more information. Prof Gauld said the set-up was an ''experiment'' in respect of how successful it would be in driving change.
''Part of the role is trying to get a clear picture of what's going on and who's doing what.
''How trustworthy various people are and so forth.''
The ''trust question'' was vital in respect of how operational the role would be, Prof Gauld said.
Mrs Grant's team is wholly Dunedin-based, and that could be causing concern in other southern centres, Prof Gauld believes.
Based in the same centre, they would probably travel together, and that was an advantage. Long travel distances in the South presented an opportunity to talk things through, he suggested.
Speculation the Canterbury District Health Board - which is under review by the Ministry of Health - may also be sacked could raise questions over whether the pseudo-democratic health governance model should be reformed.
''People are elected, but then they represent the Government,'' Prof Gauld said.
Health boards are legally accountable to the Minister of Health, not the public.
It was unusual compared with the likes of territorial authorities, whose members were accountable to electors, Prof Gauld said.
His research led him to favour a system in which boards had mostly government appointees, and a couple of elected members.
The public representatives could then truly stand for the public's concerns.
The threat over the Canterbury board prompted a strong reaction this week from the senior doctors' union, which said the Southern and Canterbury boards were ''chalk and cheese'', as Canterbury was high-performing.
''Getting rid of the Canterbury DHB's board - and possibly the rest of its leadership - should be the last thing the Government should be considering, and we hope there's no basis to this speculation,'' Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell said.
The Otago Daily Times tried to arrange a phone interview with Dunedin list MP Michael Woodhouse about the Southern DHB's new governance arrangement, but his press secretary said he was unavailable, both on Thursday, and yesterday.
''I'm trying to be helpful by offering to provide a written response from the minister to any questions you have, but if you don't want to accept that help, then there's not a lot more I can do,'' the press secretary said.
