THE political scapegoat stood aside over the bungled Bathurst and Orange hospital redevelopments has been cleared after an independent inquiry.

The former NSW health minister Reba Meagher publicly blamed a planning official, Robert Martin, for significant design faults at the $100 million Bathurst Hospital and stood him down in February. However, the Industrial Relations Commission has ruled he met all the requirements of his job as project director.

Doctors refused to operate at Bathurst for several weeks due to a faulty alarm system in emergency and the scandal prompted a statewide review of all health infrastructure projects and a redesign of the Orange hospital after similar issues were identified.

Yesterday the NSW Opposition Leader, Barry O'Farrell, said the public had a right to know how "$100 million of their money was spent on a hospital that doesn't work". A spokesman for the NSW Health Minister, John Della Bosca, said the problem arose primarily from a lack of communication between health bureaucrats and frontline medical staff in the planning process.

The chief executive of the Greater Western Area Health Service, Dr Claire Blizard, said in a memo the commission had found Mr Martin complied with the "technical and policy requirements in relation to sign-offs, variations and reporting in respect of both the Bathurst and Orange [hospital] projects".