The NSW government has refused to support a request to give greater protections to doctors and patients who raise concerns about the management of the public health system.
It is one of three recommendations from a state parliamentary inquiry into regional, rural and remote medical services which have been noted by the government.
It will support, or support in principle, 41 of the 44 recommendations.
The upper house committee used its report to call on the government to establish an independent office of the Health Administration Ombudsman.
It would review concerns about the administrative conduct of management made by doctors, patients, carers and the public.
The independent office would also examine decisions relating to alleged cover-ups of medical errors or deaths or inaccuracies.
"The advice from the ombudsman is that that process already exists within there and it would be of no further benefit," NSW Regional Health Minister Bronnie Taylor said.
She said she had been advised that the creation of this independent office would duplicate what is already available.
"I have been very open, very honest for people to contact me where there will be absolutely no retribution to go through those processes within health.
"We have heard some stories and in those we've addressed them, and we've looked at them.
"There is no way that people are being gagged."
The state government has also knocked back a recommendation to hold a separate inquiry into the availability of mental health services.
"You'd have to consider that a risk of taking resources away from the health system and its delivery of existing and agreed reform strategies,' Ms Taylor said.
The state government has supported in principle to invest in a 10-year strategy around retention and recruitment of rural and remote medical and health workers with the Commonwealth.
It would address how services can be sustained and grow.
The backing comes despite a response that argued rural workforce shortages are a national issue.
It has agreed to urgently engage with the federal government to address issues surrounding the doctor workforce .
It has supported another 13 recommendations in principle and a total of 27 in full.
On the two-year anniversary of the tabling of the initial report in May, it will undertake and inquiry to report on the progress and developments which it addressed.
The inquiry, announced in 2020, received more than 700 submissions and held 15 hearings across the state.
One of the key concerns raised by witnesses during the inquiry is the culture within the public health system.
Doctors and nurses gave evidence about colleagues wanting to leave because of the workplace conditions.
"I value the fact that we want to keep people in the system," Ms Taylor said.
"A lot of our healthcare workers, out of the goodness of their hearts, have stayed in past retirement, past when perhaps when they thought they were going to leave to help with the pandemic.
"So those people do probably want to move on."
The NSW government announced in June that it would hire more than 10,000 staff over the next four years to address the staffing shortages.
Ms Taylor said the government was on track to meet this target.
"We have already employed 2,800 from the June announcement," she said.
"They are extra full-time equivalent positions."
The members of a new ministerial advisory panel have also been unveiled.
They include the former chair of the Royal Australian College of GPs rural panel Ayman Shenouda and University of New England clinical pharmacist Anna Barwick.
The panel will be chaired by Richard Colbran, chief executive of the NSW Rural Doctors Network.
The other members are Karen Booth, Jo Caldwell, Leone Crayden, Rick Firman, Louise Fox, Laura Hand-Ross, Ken Keith, Warren Kealy-Bateman, Jennifer May, Georgina Rosee, Meg Austin and Anna Winds.
