A Christchurch nurse has allegedly been verbally assaulted and threatened by someone at a vaccination centre.
According to Ralph La Selle, the executive lead for COVID-19 at the Canterbury District Health Board, a nurse was verbally assaulted and threatened at the Burwood COVID-19 vaccination clinic at about 4:45pm on Wednesday.
While the DHB security team became involved, Police were also called to the clinic and said the incident related to "a disagreement between staff and a person attending a clinic".
"The person had attempted to take something from a staff member during the disagreement, however, they left the scene prior to Police arrival," a spokesperson said.
No one was injured and no arrests have been made. Police are continuing to look into the incident.
Stuff reports the incident happened after someone was denied a vaccination.
It emerged earlier this week that the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) had an oversupply of roughly 1400 COVID-19 vaccine doses, which were due to expire at Burwood Hospital on Tuesday.
It's been reported that a nurse at the clinic later told friends and families on social media of the oversupply, leading to people turning up wanting to be vaccinated.
It was a move praised by COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins on Wednesday.
"Whether it's DHBs, PHOs, or whoever is doing the vaccination finds they have some vaccines that could be about to expire if they don't use them... if they find creative ways to use them, I would not only defend that but I would encourage it," he says.
"Ultimately I don't want to have vaccinations going to waste necessarily and if that means some people who might otherwise not get a vaccine [instead] get a vaccine a bit early, I'd far rather that happen than vaccines being thrown away."
However, La Salle on Thursday stressed that the vaccination centres are "only for people with pre-booked appointments". That includes frontline DHB staff, healthcare workers and household contacts of border workers.
"In response to this incident, security has been reviewed and all staff involved with the clinics are to be reminded of the de-escalation training available," La Salle said.
"It was unfortunate that a social media post and the ensuing media coverage about the one-off clinics for health staff (to use the 1400 doses of excess vaccine) appear to have created some confusion amongst the public which led to a number of 'walk-ins' to the Burwood clinic from people who were not booked to receive their vaccine."
He said that the DHB had a plan on how to use the oversupply and it "did not require public advertising".
"The planned recipients were our own staff, along with frontline primary care staff (general practice teams and community pharmacy staff)," La Salle said. "I cannot stress enough, that there will be enough vaccine for everyone, and there is a priority order for vaccinations to ensure those most at risk are vaccinated first."
