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Asked how many sentinel events had occurred at the 488-bed hospital, interim medical director Dr Simon Woods said he was aware of two such cases.

One sentinel event – revealed by the Herald in June – involved a cancer patient having the wrong side of his bowel removed.

The inquiry did not press for detail about the two incidents.

The hospital's current interim chief executive Richard Royle apologised for a series of problems that plagued the hospital’s opening.

"The fact that the problems encountered during the early days of the hospital's operations were more significant than should have been the case is a failure on the part of our company and for that we apologise,” Mr Royle said.

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"Over the past nine months the team at Northern Beaches [Hospital] put all efforts into putting things right with a focus on continuous improvement.”

He said a July survey found that 80 per cent of patients rated the overall quality of treatment and care as "very good", 11 per cent higher than in the opening month.

He said Bureau of Health Information data showed patient satisfaction was 15 points above the NSW benchmark.

The data also shows Northern Beaches Hospital’s emergency department’s treatment times were significantly worse than the state average, with more than 40 per cent of patients waiting too long for their treatment to start versus the statewide average of 28.1 per cent.

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The inquiry was launched in response to concerns that the facility’s public-private status - in which Healthscope is contracted to deliver pubic services at the private facility for the next 20 years - prevented the auditor-general from examining its operations and outcomes.

The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) NSW has called on the NSW government to abandon its pubic private partnerships ambitions, blaming the controversial model for fundamental flaws, cost-cutting and secrecy at Northern Beaches Hospital.

In its submission to the inquiry, ASMOF accused Healthscope of acting as if it were running a solely private hospital, reporting public patients had been made to wait for surgery despite doctors and theatres being available, to encourage the use of private health insurance.