By Sunny Dhillon, The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The Canadian Health Coalition is calling on the country's health minister to stop private clinics from distributing the H1N1 vaccine, arguing priority flu shots are meant for everyone at high risk to contract the virus, not just people with high incomes.

But at least one of the clinics that has received the vaccine says it is following the same guidelines for who gets the shot as the public clinics.

Still, Michael McBane, spokesman for the coalition, said the fact the clinics are getting the scarce vaccine at all is "two-tier, Americanized health care."

"It's queue-jumping plain and simple. High-risk patients are lining up for a scarce supply of vaccine, while the shots are being handed out to private patients who can afford to pay," McBane said in a statement Monday.

McBane made the comments after learning two private clinics - one in Vancouver, the other in Toronto - have received a supply of the H1N1 vaccine during a shortage of it across the country.

"It is unconscionable for our public health authorities to provide the vaccine for private patients while families are turned away from public clinics because of lack of vaccine," McBane said.

Chris Nedelmann, chief operating officer for Vancouver-based Copeman Healthcare Centre, confirmed the private clinic is offering H1N1 vaccine to its members, some of whom pay up to $3,900 a year for membership.

But Nedelmann said the vaccine is only being made available to those in high-risk groups, just as it would be at a doctor's office.

"There are a number of clients who do not meet the high-risk profile and we're having to turn them away," he said.

"We're simply trying to take care of our high-risk clients and get them the vaccine as quickly as possible."

Nedelmann said the clinic received 80 doses of the H1N1 vaccine last week and ran out a few days later. He said another 300 doses arrived at the facility Monday morning.

Toronto Public Health issued a news release Monday defending its decision to send the vaccine to private clinics, saying if the doctors at the clinic meet the provincial requirements to deliver the vaccine, "the Medical Officer of Health has no authority to refuse vaccine to that provider."

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell was asked about the private clinics while at an unrelated event Monday. He told reporters the province must do all it can to get the vaccine out to high-risk groups.

"I think that we would be irresponsible not to use all the deliveries of health services to make sure that we deal with this challenge as we come ahead," he said.

Campbell said what's important is for people that are vulnerable to H1N1 to be cared for.

"For the people that suggest we should block one group out or another group out, they're not actually thinking about the impacts of someone who is requiring of a vaccination not actually receiving it," he said, adding he has not yet been immunized.

Campbell's words were echoed by B.C. Health Minister Kevin Falcon during a debate at the legislature Monday.

"Licensed medical practitioners perform duties in private and public clinics right across the province of British Columbia. They have been given an alottment. I understand it's exactly the same alottment provided to doctor's offices," Falcon said.

"They are required to administer it in exactly the same way that they're being administered at public clinics, at private clinics, at doctor's offices and at hospitals and that is to at-risk patient groups at no cost to the individuals and that's exactly what I expect them to do."

B.C. New Democrat health critic Adrian Dix expressed skepticism at Falcon's words.

"How does it make sense at a time when there's a shortage, at a time when the minister is rightly asking British Columbians to be patient, how does it make sense to provide some of that supply to a clinic where you have to pay to play?"

Added federal NDP Leader Jack Layton: "You shouldn't be able to buy your way to the front of the line for flu vaccination. That is just not right in Canada."