The entire board of the Mackay Hospital and Health Service has been sacked and a new administrator appointed.
It follows a damning report into patient care in the obstetric and gynaecology department.
The report found sub-standard care caused life-long harm to a number of women.
Following the release of the report, all board members were given a show cause notice and Health Minister Yvette D'Ath extended the deadline to get adequate responses.
This week, Ms D'Ath said it was in the public interest that all members of the board be dismissed.
"In the circumstances, I am not satisfied that the board is able to implement the recommendations of the report, including the cultural change needed across the hospital," Ms D'Ath said.
Melissa Ferrier was the last patient operated on by suspended surgeon George Du Toit.
"I'm surprised it's taken so long but I'm glad they've come to the right decision in the end and that everybody has gone," she said.
"She [the Health Minister] has recognised that [culture] as a massive issue.
"If you don't have the right culture then everything goes by the wayside.
"She's finally taken notice of what every single person has said either through the media, in the forums that we've had and individual meetings with a variety of people at the hospital.
"I said from the start, words are just words, I want to see actions.
"I think we're actually making good progress."
Delays unavoidable: Minister
It has taken several months for the report to be delivered and for the minister to make a decision on the future of the board.
But Ms D'Ath said she acted as quickly as she could.
"Yes there were allegations, serious allegations, but I can't sack a board just on allegations," she said.
"I have to consider the circumstances and what has been factually identified.
"What has happened hasn't happened out of malice, but the fact is that it did happen on their watch and people have to be held accountable for that."
Ms D'Ath said she did not believe the board as a whole had the skill set needed to address the identified issues and implement cultural change.
New administrator appointed
Karen Roach has been appointed administrator in place of the board.
Ms D'Ath said Ms Roach has more than 35 years experience in health organisations.
"Ms Roach served as Interim Chief Operating Officer of Metro South and Sunshine Coast HHS and Interim Chief Executive of Townsville HHS," Ms D'Ath said.
"She has qualifications in nursing and midwifery and was awarded a Centenary of Australia Award for services to nursing and health services across Queensland."
Patient advocate Beryl Crosby, who pushed for a review into the Mackay hospital's obstetrics and gynaecology department after being approached by a whistleblower, welcomed the board's sacking.
"The problem with boards is that patient safety isn't high on their agenda," she said.
"They weren't set up that way. They were set up to meet funding targets. They were set up for service delivery. But patient safety hasn't been a part of that. Clinical governance is not their strong point."
Recruitment in regional areas a 'challenge', former board chair says
The Mackay Hospital and Health Service's former board chair Darryl Camilleri said "the board could have done better".
But he also said: "We thought we were moving in the right direction. We thought we were on the way to actually try and improve the service and get it through to the other side."
Mr Camillieri said the board had already implemented 47 of the review team's 122 recommendations when the report was handed down in September.
He said the key to improving health care in the regions was to entice "a greater depth of medical practitioners".
"There needs to be more midwifery nurses, certainly more obstetricians," he said.
"It is a challenge for those regional areas to recruit those people. Going forward, there needs to be more availability of those."
