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Stop asking staff to write fake vaccine records: New Brunswick Horizon Health

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HALIFAX -

Horizon Health in New Brunswick has issued a notice telling residents to stop asking public health to falsify vaccination documentation.

"It has come to our attention that public health staff are being approached by members of the public who are requesting they falsify their vaccination record," says the notice.

Public health says the request is concerning and staff will not oblige, "as this is a crime."

"Please do not contact any Horizon staff with a request to produce false medical records," it says.

Anyone providing false proof of vaccination or false vaccination exemptions could be fined between $172.50 and $772.50.

"Physicians do not falsify records," says Dr. John Dornan, the interim president of the Horizon Health Network. "It's not a fraudulent practice we have and I have confidence in health-care providers to do the right thing."

Patients are also asking doctors to back up claims of a medical exemption for not getting the shot.

New Brunswick Medical Society president Dr. Jeff Steeves says there aren't many.

"It's very limited it involves having a serious allergic reaction to the COVID vaccine itself, which means you had the first one and you had a serious reaction, or having a known reaction to a component of the vaccine, and there's only a few of them," Steeves said.

Last week, New Brunswick began requiring proof of vaccination to enter public places including restaurants, indoor events, and gyms.

People can show their proof of vaccination through the My Health New Brunswick website, an immunization record from public health, a pharmacy or clinic, or a photo of their vaccination record.

The same requirement will begin Oct. 4 in Nova Scotia and Oct. 5 in Prince Edward Island.

Asking doctors to forge an immunization can take up more, than just valuable time.

"And so, in the end, the patient is at a minimal, disappointed that they haven't got what they asked for, or on the other side of spectrum quite angry and verbally abusive to the physician," Steeves said. "Either way, it threatens the patient-doctor relationship going forward."

This, at a time when that relationship is critically important.

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