{"id":392771,"date":"2026-01-05T08:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T08:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392771\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T08:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T08:55:09","slug":"senior-queensland-doctor-cleared-of-allegations-after-14-month-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/392771\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior Queensland doctor cleared of allegations after 14-month suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland chief medical officer at the centre of a high-profile investigation has returned to work after being suspended for 14 months.<\/p>\n

The Mackay Hospital and Health Service’s (MHHS) chief medical officer (CMO), Charles Pain, returned to work on Monday, after an external investigation cleared him of all allegations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Pain was suspended from his role on September 28, 2024.<\/p>\n

The ABC revealed in October<\/a> last year that the suspension was initially sparked by a complaint from a doctor contracted to work in the CMO role, while Dr Pain was on sick leave in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Two doctors have acted in the chief medical officer role in Mackay over the past year. (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n

Documents from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) showed the complaints included allegations of “poor clinical governance and credentialing and accreditation concerns”.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Monday, MHHS chief executive Sean Birgan said the investigation <\/a>found Dr Pain had acted “appropriately, transparently and reasonably”, and no adverse findings were made against him.<\/p>\n

Mr Birgan said Dr Pain’s suspension had been lifted, and he welcomed “his leadership and return to the organisation”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sean Birgan became the interim chief executive of the Mackay Hospital and Health Service in October last year. (ABC North West Qld: Emily Dobson)<\/p>\n

Transparency concerns remainChief medical officer vows to clear his name <\/a><\/p>\n

Charles Pain vowed to clear his name after going to the Industrial Relations Commission to find out the allegations against him.<\/p>\n

The Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation Queensland (ASMOFQ) also welcomed Dr Pain’s return.<\/p>\n

The organisation said it had been in discussions with MHHS prior to Dr Pain’s suspension being lifted on November 27, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, it also called for a review into the basis of Dr Pain’s suspension “to ensure the appropriate use of executive powers and accountability to the community, including the proper use of public funds and resources”.<\/p>\n

Documents from the QIRC showed Dr Pain received his base salary while he was suspended.<\/p>\n

It also showed MHHS spent $321,000 in the 2024\u201325 financial year on two doctors to act as the CMO in Dr Pain’s absence.<\/p>\n

In a statement, ASMOFQ said the case highlighted the need for “clearer guidelines and greater transparency” around suspensions, particularly when they were “prolonged”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland chief medical officer at the centre of a high-profile investigation has returned to work after being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,144688,210128,5181,24243,4082,1163,8122,44,144684,26605],"class_list":["post-392771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-salaried-medical-officers-of-queensland","tag-charles-pain","tag-chief-medical-officer","tag-doctor","tag-hospital","tag-mackay-base-hospital","tag-medical","tag-news","tag-queensland-industrial-relations-commission","tag-suspension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}