Via the Globe and Mail: Private-clinic patients jump the line for flu shot. Excerpt:
Patients at private medical clinics in at least two provinces have jumped the queue for H1N1 vaccine during a nationwide shortage of the flu shot, rekindling a debate about the perils of two-tier health care in Canada.
Copeman Healthcare, a private clinic in Vancouver that charges patients annual membership fees of $3,900 in the first year, has already received its first shipment of H1N1 vaccine and is hoping for more soon, said chief operating officer Chris Nedelmann.
Medcan, a clinic in downtown Toronto that charges just under $2,000 for a head-to-toe checkup, received 3,000 doses last Friday, enough for 8 per cent of its patients.
Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews is vowing to launch a review of Toronto Public Health's decision to give Medcan access to a vaccine in short supply at a time when officials across the country are scrambling to rein in a pandemic that is taking a growing toll on Canadians.
"When all of this is behind us, I think it is a question we are going to want to take a pretty good look at," Ms. Matthews said at a news conference yesterday.
The private-clinic controversy, the latest to dog Canada's largest-ever inoculation campaign, raises concerns about the patchwork of practices for distributing the vaccine.
In many provinces, including Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec, the vaccine is available only through public clinics. Other provinces, including Ontario and British Columbia, are doling out the vaccine to physicians and family health-care practices as well as to public clinics.
Copeman and Medcan were among a group of doctors' offices and clinics that applied to local health officials to distribute the vaccine.
