QUEENSLAND’S health minister has backed a decision to suspend two Cairns doctors for talking to the media about how an Ebola scare was handled. LAWRENCE Springborg says it’s his job to ensure there’s public confidence in the hospital system, and “misinformation” circulated at the weekend put that at risk. The suspensions follow concerns raised publicly by the unnamed doctors over the handling of infectious disease cases in Cairns, including a nurse suspected of having Ebola. She’s since tested negative for the virus. “I’m very concerned that there was misleading information … for whatever reason, which created an impression that the nurse had not received the treatment in isolation that she should have done,” the minister told ABC radio on Tuesday. “This nurse was treated appropriately in an isolated environment in an isolated room in the emergency department. “There was certainly misleading information on the weekend and we need to understand why that information was misleading.” The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association is furious about the suspension decision by the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service. Association President Tony Sara says the doctors have been punished for speaking out about how infectious disease cases are managed, when that’s clearly an issue of great public concern. Doctors should have the right to publicly comment when they believe management has failed to adequately address issues, Dr Sara says. In a weekend news report, published in The Courier-Mail, the doctors expressed concern about the decision to keep the nurse in a section of Cairns Hospital’s emergency department rather than in isolation in a highly infectious diseases unit. Julie Hartley-Jones, the chief executive of the Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, confirmed the suspensions of the unnamed doctors on Monday. “I have taken the decision to stand down two senior doctors on full pay at Cairns Hospital pending the results of a review into the handling of recent infectious diseases cases …” she said. “This is the only comment we will be making at this time.” Ms Hartley-Jones said there were protocols that should have been followed. The nurse at the centre of the Ebola scare has returned two rounds of negative tests for the virus, after returning from treating victims of the virus in Sierra Leone. She’s been allowed to go home but still has about a week of home isolation to complete, so she’s outside the 21-day incubation period for Ebola.