SUN FILE

CALGARY — The controversial H1N1 queue-jumping involving the Calgary Flames will be front and centre Thursday when the Alberta Health Services inquiry resumes.

Lori Anderson, former AHS vice-president of community and rural health, is slated to appear before the inquiry headed by Justice John Vertes.

Two staffers were fired after public health nurses administered H1N1 shots in December 2009 to the Calgary Flames players, who didn't have to line up, a day before the province announced a vaccine shortage.

The inquiry that was called after a 2009 memo from then AHS CEO Stephen Duckett surfaced speaking of how preferential treatment was expected for those with political connections.

On Wednesday, Janice Stewart executive director of surgery at Calgary's Rockyview Hospital, testified that somebody from former premier Ralph Klein's inner circle tried to influence a patient's release a few years ago.

She said she was once called in to then president and CEO of Calgary Health Region Jack Davis' office to deal with a request from the father of a child in ICU at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary.

"The request came directly as a result of someone that was in Ralph Klein's inner circle," she told the inquiry.

Stewart said the incident took place between 2003-2005 when she was in charge of the home-care program that allows patients' care to continue in their residence with assistance from health professionals.

The child in question has been referred to the program and the parents had asked Davis if there's any way to expedite the process, Stewart testified.

On Twitter: @SUNRenatoGandia