Mackay Chief Medical officer suspended from duty

A top executive for the Mackay Hospital and Health Services has been suspended from duty.

A top Mackay health professional has been suspended in a shock announcement from the region’s chief health executive.

The Mackay Hospital and Health Service Executive Director of Medical Services Professor Phillip Reasbeck, who also acts as the Chief Medical Officer, has been suspended from duty.

Mackay HHS Chief Executive Lisa Davies Jones wanted to reassure the community there would be “no impact on their care or clinical services”.

“Given a formal suspension process has commenced, it would not be appropriate to make further comment at this time,” Ms Jones said.

Prof Reasbeck trained as a general and vascular surgeon in London and southern England before completing his surgical training in New Zealand.

He worked as a consultant, general and vascular surgeon in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, and as Medical Director of an NHS trust in the United Kingdom, before becoming a full-time medical administrator in 2010 in Australia.

Ms Davies Jones said Dr David Farlow, who had previously held the position of Mackay HHS Executive Director of Research and Innovation, would be acting in the Executive Director of Medical Services and Chief Medical Officer role until further notice.

Dr Farlow had been previously held the role of the MHHS Executive Director Clinical Services from 2007 until 2015.

Before arriving in Mackay in 1984, Dr Farlow worked as rural generalist for 25 years in procedural obstetrics, anaesthetics and surgery.