{"id":493757,"date":"2026-01-05T09:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493757\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T09:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:19:12","slug":"senior-queensland-doctor-cleared-of-allegations-after-14-month-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493757\/","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 Queensland Health 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":3,"featured_media":493758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,222304,222303,222302,9223,6478,222301,1083,50,222305,76407],"class_list":{"0":"post-493757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australian-salaried-medical-officers-of-queensland","10":"tag-charles-pain","11":"tag-chief-medical-officer","12":"tag-doctor","13":"tag-hospital","14":"tag-mackay-base-hospital","15":"tag-medical","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-queensland-industrial-relations-commission","18":"tag-suspension"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115841752531819339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}