Westmead Hospital general manager Brad Astill has apologised to patients over a backlog of follow-up letters to cancer patients.
About 700 people waited up to three years for the letters to be sent from their specialists to their GPs and some of the patients died while waiting for advice, it was revealed on Tuesday.
"I'd like to start by apologising to patients, carers and GPs for the issue that's occurred," Mr Astill told reporters in Sydney.
"Communication with our patients and their families and their doctors is really important for us."
Mr Astill said additional staff had been hired to deal with the backlog and promised that it would be cleared within three weeks.
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He blamed the old software system and a lack of staff for the backlog but said it wasn't a budgetary issue.
"We underestimated the number of staff that were required," he said.
"We are confident clinical care hasn't been affected."
NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner has called the incident "unacceptable" and ordered a review.
NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson said he would be monitoring the situation closely.
"Those delays are just completely unacceptable," he told reporters in Homebush on Tuesday.
"We'll be watching to make sure that the minister delivers on the commitments that she's made to have a turnaround of three weeks.
"Delays of that length are completely unacceptable, especially when it's correspondence when it relates to cancer."
Mr Robertson didn't comment when he was asked if he took any responsibility for the backlog, some of which dates back to 2008 when Labor was in power.
The revelations come a day after Westmead announced an investigation had found the hospital's water supply was cut for several hours last week when a valve was shut by mistake.
The bungle caused some elective surgeries to be cancelled and forced some dialysis patients to transfer to Auburn Hospital.
