Private hospital operator Healthscope has acknowledged it made mistakes when opening Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital last October and says it has prioritised enhancements to its electronic medical record (EMR) to focus on patient safety issues.

The acknowledgement follows a recently released report outlining problems with clinical IT by the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI) and amid strong criticism of the EMR and other clinical IT issues from the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) in its submission to a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the hospital.