Non-Nova Scotians getting H1N1 vaccine: MLA
Last Updated: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 | 7:59 AM AT
CBC News
Nova Scotia needs to ensure that New Brunswick families aren't crossing the border for an H1N1 shot, a Tory MLA says.
Murray Scott, who represents the border district of Cumberland South, said he confirmed that New Brunswickers were getting vaccinated in Nova Scotia after investigating a complaint from a constituent.
He wouldn't say how he confirmed it or how many New Brunswickers are involved.
"A good police officer keeps his informants to himself," Scott told reporters Tuesday.
He said each province has been given an allotment of vaccine based on its population, so each province should look after its own residents. He suggests anyone at an H1N1 clinic in Nova Scotia must produce a Nova Scotia health card.
Scott said he's raising the issue because of the shortage of vaccine this week.
The provinces all got less vaccine, prompting Nova Scotia to limit the H1N1 shot to pregnant women, First Nation communities, front-line health care workers and children between the ages of six and 59 months.
Asked to show health card
Health Minister Maureen MacDonald said she'll look into Scott's complaint.
"It could become a problem if New Brunswick had no vaccine and people were flooding across the border into Nova Scotia to get vaccinated. But New Brunswick clinics are operating and we don't know if this is an isolated situation or if it's a larger problem," she said.
People arriving at vaccination clinics in Nova Scotia are asked to show their provincial health card, but MacDonald said no one is being refused a shot if they don't have one.
She said it would violate the Canada Health Act to turn people away.
"You are entitled to get health care wherever you are residing or wherever you happen to be in the country when you need it," she said.
Provincial health officials estimate more than 82,000 people, or about nine per cent of the population, have been vaccinated in Nova Scotia.
