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January 11, 2013 - 10:29 AM
CALGARY - A fear that the Calgary Flames would be hounded in long flu shot lineups was the reason for a special clinic that allowed players and their families to jump the queue.
Jim Thorne, the NHL team's doctor, says players were willing to wait in line to be vaccinated against H1N1 in 2009, but he was concerned about security and privacy.
He says he flagged those concerned with a public-health nurse he knew.
Thorne is testifying at a public inquiry into alleged preferential treatment in the Alberta health system.
Thorne says Alberta Health Services offered to give the players and their families the shots in a clinic away from long lines.
He says the team would never have agreed had it known there would be vaccine shortages that led to shots being stopped for the general public on the same day the Flames clinic was held.
He also says Flames family members were included in the clinic because officials told him the vaccine had a short shelf life once opened and needed to be used up before it spoiled.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2013