Ten of the 11 members were sacked eight weeks ago and replaced by commissioner Kathy Grant and three deputies, who are tasked with trying to get the financially troubled board back on track. Mr Thomson was the only member offered an ongoing role.
Yesterday Mr Coleman and Mr Thomson visited Invercargill, Gore and Queenstown Lakes hospitals, touring the facilities and talking to senior clinicians.
The visits were timed so Mr Coleman, who is also Sport and Recreation Minister, could officially open the Audi Quattro Winter Games in Queenstown last night.
The SDHB has had longstanding financial woes and had predicted a 2015-16 deficit of $42million.
Cost-cutting had already begun before the board was replaced, including slashing 5% from the budgets of regional hospitals and health services.
After the Southland Hospital visit, Mr Coleman said the visits were not to tell staff ''this is what we are going to do'' but were about ''sharing in the understanding of the problems and what the solutions might be''.
Over time, the aim nationally and in the South was to shift the health focus to prevention and community programmes to reduce the pressure on hospitals, he said, citing the example of the introduction of free GP visits for under-13-year-olds.
But he said in the short term, no hospitals would close within the SDHB area and people would still be able to access all the health services they needed.
''The patients come first''.
However, he said there was a need to ensure services were not being duplicated across the board area and it could be that particular services could be operated from ''centres of excellence''.
Mr Coleman has made it plain he expects the commissioners to rein in future deficits and has given them 15 months to do so.
Mr Thomson said yesterday clear communication with staff, health providers and the community on ''the way forward'' was essential.
The commissioners planned to release regular monthly updates to keep people informed, he said. The first was released yesterday afternoon.
