A Sydney hospital has been placed under review after one of its doctors under-dosed chemotherapy drugs to cancer patients over three years.
Dr John Grygiel was an oncologist at St Vincent's Hospital when he gave incorrect doses of the chemotherapy drug carboplatin to 70 head and neck cancer patients from 2012 to 2015.
NSW Health has launched a review into the hospital on Wednesday, co-led by the Cancer Institute of NSW and the Clinical Excellence Commission.
"The review will cover the adequacy, timeliness and scope of St Vincent's Hospital's response and identify areas for systemic improvement," a NSW Health spokeswoman said.
In a statement sent by the doctor's lawyer, Dr Grygiel has rejected claims he under-dosed patients because the formula for dosage is "intended as a guide only" and the guidelines were flawed.
"I have always acted in the best interest of my patients," Dr Grygiel said.
St Vincent's spokesman David Faktor said the hospital would accept any recommendations made by the review.
"We have agreed to go beyond the matter raised last week and extend the review's terms to include other cancer types involving the doctor in question," Mr Faktor said on Wednesday.
"For St Vincent's, this is about public confidence in our systems and processes."
There was no evidence of systematic errors within the hospital and the bungle didn't have a significant impact on the patients' outcomes, Mr Faktor said.
He said Dr Grygiel was immediately placed under supervision and counselled after another staff member reported the issue in August last year.
But Dr Grygiel said he had never been disciplined or placed under supervision following a meeting with the boss of the Head and Neck department.
"No criticisms were made of me," he said.
The doctor took leave last Thursday, which will carry on until his planned retirement next month.
Although the under-dosing was picked up six months ago, the hospital chose not to tell patients until it had been independently investigated.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said the doctor's patients had been upset by the news.
"This has been a distressing time for Dr Grygiel's patients and their families," Ms Skinner said last week.
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