MONTREAL – As thousands of Montreal adults wait anxiously to get their H1N1 flu shots next month, the top 200 donors of the Jewish General Hospital have already been inoculated, The Gazette has learned.Hospital officials, however, denied that there’s a link between making a financial donation and getting fast-tracked for the flu shots. Rather, the 200 donors are all volunteers at the Jewish General in some capacity, said spokesperson Karen Ohayon.

“It has nothing to do with the fact that they gave money,” she said. “There’s absolutely no link.”

Last month, the Quebec government announced that health-care workers – including doctors, nurses and other staff who are in close contact with patients – would be the first to be vaccinated against the pandemic H1N1 strain.However, the Jewish General has decided that in addition to health professionals, donors who sit on various boards would also be vaccinated.

“Most of the people that donate to the hospital in one way or another volunteer at the hospital, because they are all part of boards and are involved in the hospital,” Ohayon explained.

“They are inside the hospital, they give their time. They are inside meetings. They are part of the hospital in a way, because they are always here.”

Asked whether a donor- volunteer of the Jewish General foundation is in close contact with patients, Ohayon responded:

“Yes, because there is contact. I work for the PR department, which is next to the entrance, and I’m in the hospital almost all day and I was vaccinated. We’re exposed to the virus.”

However, a physician who works at a Montreal hospital accused the Jewish General of applying a double standard to favour “elite donors.”

“That’s disgusting,” said the doctor, who spoke on condition that her name not be used. “Where are the priorities in our society? Are sports figures and elite donors a priority?”

The physician was alluding to a report this week that a British Columbia doctor had vaccinated 22 pro hockey players. B.C.’s health officer responded immediately, saying the shortage of vaccine means that athletes should not have jumped the queue.Marie-Ève Bédard, press attaché to Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc, said board members of hospitals and donors are not entitled to vaccines ahead of the rest of the population.

“There has been a gap in communication because this morning we learned that certain (hospital) boards of directors were vaccinated, which the minister considers unacceptable,” Bédard said.

“Whether they are donors or volunteers, unless they give care directly to patients they should not have been vaccinated” as part of the first-priority group.

“Perhaps some institutions have taken their own initiatives, but they were never authorized by the Health Department,” Bédard added.

The Montreal hospital physician was also upset by the government policy of vaccinating health-care workers last week, but not their children.

“We find it despicable that the Health Ministry did not vaccinate health-care workers’ children in the hospital,” she said. “Instead, we now have to take a full day off of work to get our children vaccinated.”

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