Two women in scuffle in Northampton flu clinic parking lot

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - A swine flu clinic on Locust Street turned ugly Tuesday afternoon when two women got into a shoving match over an available parking space, police said.

According to Lt. Michael Patenaude, at 12:30 p.m., officers responded to Northampton Area Pediatrics for a reported altercation between two women in the parking lot. Patenaude said the dispute began when one of the women, who was idling in one of the clinic's parking spaces, felt that the other, who was pulling in to have her child vaccinated, was taking too long to move out of the way.

"Attendance was heavier than they though it was going to be, and the woman parked in the space thought the other was taking too long to move her car," Patenaude said, "and they ended up getting into a shoving match."

Kim Hayes, the practice administrator, said the clinic was offering a free walk-in clinic to their patients who are siblings of infants less than 6 months of age and to children between the ages of 6 months and 3 years of age with severe chronic illnesses, such as asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, leukemia, seizures, heart disease, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

"We give out the vaccine based on capacity, and we can only give out so many of them per session," Hayes said. "We did it over the lunch hour today, and we can only vaccinate about 50 people an hour. Unfortunately, we had to turn some people away and ask them to come back later in the evening."

According to the practice's Web site, vaccinations at its clinics will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis. Only its patients will receive the vaccine, and they must be in good health to have it administered.

Patenaude declined to identify the women involved in the fight and said no charges or arrests were made as a result of the altercation.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.