The inquiry into preferential treatment in Alberta’s health system continued in Calgary Friday, with light shed on why the Calgary Flames and their families appeared to jump the line for the H1N1 vaccine back in 2009.

Team doctor Dr. Jim Thorne testified on what happened Friday, and said he had gone to Alberta Health Services with questions on how the Calgary Flames players and their families could have the vaccine, out of the public eye.

“Our initial request was seriously to get in the line safely,” Dr. Thorne said on the stand Friday.

Thorne said he wanted to make sure the players received the shot, but he was worried about the safety aspect of having the entire team wait in a public lineup.

The scandal made headlines at the same time Albertans were waiting for hours to get vaccinated.

The doctor said AHS officials offered to hold a private clinic for the team at the team’s offices.

“And when Alberta Health came back to us with their offer, regrettably we took their offer,” Thorne said. “In hindsight we probably should have gotten in the lineup with our own security and mitigated the crowd control issues.”

The day after the private clinic, news broke of a shortage of the H1N1 vaccine, and clinics were closed so the vaccine could go to the most vulnerable first.

Dr. Thorne recounted his thoughts following the news.

“[I thought] this is going to be bad,” Thorne said. “I said ‘We weren’t in a lineup, now people can’t get it, this is going to get out like it should’ and we didn’t know a shortage was coming,

“If we knew one was, we certainly wouldn’t have proceeded.”

Two AHS staff were later fired over the incident.

This is the second round of the inquiry, which started in December in Edmonton.

Proceedings will resume Monday in Calgary, with more testimony on the Calgary Flames.

The Edmonton Oilers have also been mentioned in the inquiry – in December former AHS CEO Dr. Stephen Duckett testified that a request had been made to have a vaccine clinic set up for the Oilers, but it was declined.

With files from Bill Fortier