The man in charge of the state's largest hospital was stood down on Monday following accusations he hand-picked the panel who interviewed him for an executive position.
The sudden departure of Keshwar Baboolal, the executive director of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, was announced in an email to staff on Monday afternoon. It gave no reason for the move.
But several senior sources within Queensland Health have told Fairfax Media the Metro North health board ended Professor Baboolal's employment after receiving complaints from staff over his handling of a job application process.
Professor Baboolal told The Courier Mail on Monday he was leaving the health service after failing to come to terms with the board over his contract.
"I just want to move on," he told the paper.
However, it is understood Professor Baboolal is alleged to have applied for a senior medical officer position and arranged to be interviewed by a panel of his sub-ordinates. The board is understood to have acted after investigating complaints about the process.
Metro North declined to comment further on the issue.
Fairfax Media was unable to reach Professor Baboolal despite contacting friends, his former employer and the Australian Medical Association of Queensland.
Professor Baboolal is the fourth senior bureaucrat to have resigned or been suspended from the Metro North health region in the past five weeks.
In September Malcolm Stamp, the CEO of the Metro North Health and Hospital Board was suspended, alongside the health district's executive director of corporate services and performance, Scott McMullen.
Those two suspensions triggered an internal examination into the decision by Mr Stamp to appoint his daughter to a company that had contracts to Queensland Health.
Mr Stamp has denied any wrong doing.
The Crime and Corruption Commission investigation is ongoing.
In an unrelated event, the head of Metro North's human resources area, Angela Wilke also resigned last week.
Resignations continued in the Metro North health region on Tuesday afternoon.
Fairfax Media understands Metro North region's five-person Clinical Services Transition Team resigned on Tuesday because they were frustrated at the number of senior executive health changes.
The transition team was looking at improving the way patients are presented to specialists in the Metro North health region to find efficiencies.
Comment has been sought from Metro North's health region.
