NSW's Health Minister Brad Hazzard has described St Vincent's Hospital as one of Australia's most pre-eminent institutions despite claims it tried to cover up a chemotherapy dosing scandal.
In a scathing report handed down on Thursday, the NSW parliamentary committee looking into the bungle said it could not rule out the possibility St Vincent's tried to cover up the controversy for almost two years.
The committee report concludes "the hospital's senior management put their public standing ahead of the best interests of their patients as the matter unfolded and quickly became a full-blown scandal".
The probe, which wrapped up in November, investigated the circumstances surrounding the actions of oncologist Dr John Grygiel, who was found to have given at least 129 cancer patients flat or significantly reduced doses of chemotherapy.
Despite coming to the hospital's attention in June 2015, the scandal did not come to light until February 2016, when many of the patients found out through media reports.
Mr Hazzard noted the report's findings that "individual and collective human error" along with "systemic failures" contributed to the issue.
"The plain-spoken truth is that there were some cultural issues between various people who were theoretically contributing to the doctors team but who were perhaps not listened to," he told AAP.
The minister says he's satisfied St Vincent's Hospital has changed.
"The advice I have had from the Ministry of Health and Cancer Institute of NSW is that the hospital administration has recognised the issues."
"Patients who attend St Vincent's are going to one of the most pre-eminent hospitals in Australia and they will benefit from reports that have come down," he added.
St Vincent's Hospital has meanwhile rejected the critical findings "in the strongest possible terms".
"The independent and exhaustive inquiry into this matter, led by the Cancer Institute NSW's Professor David Currow, did not produce any material to suggest anything of that nature (a cover-up) had occurred," a hospital spokesman said in a statement.
"It found Dr Grygiel's practice of under dosing 'remained unknown to senior hospital management until August 2015'."
The hospital acknowledged it failed to appreciate the seriousness of what occurred and should have handled the issue better.
"Once again, St Vincent's apologises to all patients and families who have experienced anxiety or concern over their treatment," the spokesman said.
The opposition's health spokesman Walt Secord has called for a public apology from NSW Health to the affected patients and their families and for more government scrutiny on St Vincent's.
"I think there should be more ministerial control over the activities of St Vincent's Hospital in its public provision of health care," he said.
"When the state government every three to four years renegotiates its contract with St Vincent's, they can bring in certain governance protocols."
Among its 11 recommendations, the committee has called on Cancer Institute NSW to publish all patient evaluations and outcomes of patients who received off-protocol chemotherapy flat-dosing, and for NSW Health to publish the findings of its audit of cancer patients across the state.
