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One of Queensland's chief medical officers has been suspended for more than a year on his $500,000 salary as he awaits the findings of an independent inquiry. The Mackay Hospital and Health Service's (MHHS) chief medical officer (CMO), Charles Pain, was suspended on September 28, 2024, four days before he was medically cleared to return to work after surgery for prostate cancer. Documents from the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) reveal Dr Pain is being investigated over alleged "poor clinical governance and credentialing and accreditation concerns". The health service says his suspension is necessary as the "proper and efficient management of MHHS would be prejudiced" if he remained in the workplace while an investigation is carried out. His suspension is the latest in a series of struggles for the health service, including an investigation into obstetrics and gynaecology that found "inadequate care" contributed to the deaths of babies and harmed women. This occurred before Dr Pain commenced at the hospital and the hospital's board was sacked in the wake of the findings. Documents from the QIRC obtained by the ABC show Dr Pain continues to receive his base salary while suspended. He earned more than $500,000 in the 2024–25 financial year while working and suspended, according to the Mackay HHS annual report. The same report shows the HHS spent $321,000 in the last financial year employing two doctors to act as the CMO in Dr Pain's absence. Clinical leadership complaint The QIRC documents say the then chief executive, Susan Gannon, suspended Dr Pain the day after receiving a complaint from a doctor contracted to work in the CMO role for three and a half weeks while Dr Pain was on sick leave. Dr Nadarajah Ramesh wrote to Ms Gannon and the then Board chair, Helen Darch, about Dr Pain's management of a series of clinical incidents involving a senior medical officer. He recommended Dr Pain be immediately suspended while "an independent external and professional investigation take place". The suspension came four days after Dr Pain and Ms Gannon exchanged text messages about the date he would return to work from sick leave. According to the QIRC documents, Ms Gannon wrote to Dr Pain, saying: "I consider an unacceptable health and safety risk exists to patients if you remain in your current role whilst the concerns are further investigated." Dr Pain replied he was deeply disappointed. Reasons for suspension sought In January, Dr Pain made an "urgent request" in the QIRC seeking reasons for his suspension and a copy of the allegations. He said failure to provide this contravened the Industrial Relations Act; however, the HHS disputed this as he was still an employee. Dr Pain's application also argued that the act had been contravened by not offering him alternative duties instead of suspension. It said he had suffered irreparable reputational harm from the suspension, as well as hurt and humiliation, and asked for $2.3 million in damages and civil penalty orders, which was opposed by the HHS and not granted. The application was discontinued in April after Dr Pain received written details of the allegations. Dr Pain declined to comment to the ABC. Mackay HHS would not say when the investigation into Dr Pain would be complete and said privacy considerations prevented it from commenting. Health Minister Tim Nicholls's office also declined to comment. Call for transparency around suspensions The Australian Salaried Medical Officers of Queensland (ASMOFQ) has met with Queensland Health director-general David Rosengren asking for more transparency during inquiries and suspensions. Vice-president Dr Siva Senthuran said ASMOFQ was concerned about the basis of Dr Pain's suspension. Dr Senthuran said stronger safeguards from the health minister and director-general were needed to ensure robust and transparent processes for inquiries and suspensions, "so that these powers are exercised fairly, proportionately, and with accountability". Experienced doctor Dr Pain started in Mackay in October 2022, a month after the results of the investigation into obstetrics and gynaecology services were handed down. He acted as interim chief executive and chaired a working group overseeing the implementation of 122 recommendations from the investigation. "Dr Pain accepted a role that few others were qualified to undertake: reconstructing corporate and clinical governance and building a culture that delivered a safe, efficient and equitable health service to the community at a time when trust in the hospital had been significantly eroded," Dr Senthuran said. Senior doctor's recruitment investigated Following Dr Pain's suspension, an investigation into senior doctor recruitment and credentialing at the Mackay HHS was announced in January 2025. The six-month investigation found one case where there was not appropriate oversight and made 11 recommendations to improve administration practices. The investigation report did not make any findings against Dr Pain, and found the CMO role did not have direct line oversight and operational authority for senior medical officer (SMO) recruitment, which the investigators believed should be a core function of a CMO role.
