West Valley gets first mobile health clinic

Despite Santa Clara County having the second largest public hospital system in the state, West Valley residents have never had their own county-run health clinic. That’s changing with a new center in Cupertino — and it’s running on wheels.

County officials and health leaders gathered at De Anza College on Friday to launch a mobile health center, where underserved De Anza students — as well as residents in Cupertino, Los Altos, Saratoga, Sunnyvale and West San Jose — can be seen without an appointment. The van offers treatment for minor illnesses and injuries, family planning services, physical exams, health screenings, adult vaccinations and referrals to specialty care. It’s open every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on campus.

“I hope this is just the start,” District 5 Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, who represents the West Valley on the Board of Supervisors, said at a news conference on campus. “Even though we’re in difficult financial times, we have to plan for the future and this one-year program will be our proving ground for having healthcare services in the West Valley into the future. It will help us to better determine the community’s long-term needs and what future service lines might be applicable.”

Officials originally envisioned constructing a new building on the community college campus to house emergency and family care services, while also allowing students to work and gain experience there. In light of massive budget cuts, the county is instead opting to start with a one-year pilot program on wheels. The van will serve as a study on what the community needs and how the clinic should evolve.

De Anza College officials would have the final say on whether a more permanent facility gets built on campus.

“As we launch this pilot, we do so with both optimism and intention,” Vice Chancellor Gohar Momjian said at the news conference. “Optimism for the immediate impact it will have, and the intention to learn, to listen and to grow this model in the years ahead. Because the need is real, and the opportunity is even greater.”

The effort comes after years of working to establish a health clinic in a region spanning some of the South Bay’s wealthiest ZIP codes — a perception that’s overlooked working-class pockets within those neighborhoods.

Former Supervisor Joe Simitian, who helped lead the initial push for the mobile health center, said the perception of the West Valley as wealthy has worked to the detriment of the families on public health plans who live there.

“I struggled for many years on the board with the fact that in the 150-year history of the county there had never been a county clinic in District 5,” Simitian told San José Spotlight. “That lack of service was apparent when contrasted with the fact that each of the other four districts had at least three or four county clinics or hospitals.”

The county eventually opened its first health clinic in District 5 in November 2024 in Palo Alto. The West Valley continued to go without one.

“It was always quite clear the need was greater in other parts of the county, but our research indicated probably 40,000 people in the district had some form of public assistance — that’s not a small number,” Simitian said. “The need for these services is clear and demonstrable.”

Yet the West Valley has plenty of residents with their own insurance, which could also work in the new clinic’s favor — bolstering a payer mix that includes insured patients among those on public health plans and without insurance.

Sujatha Venkatraman, executive director of West Valley Community Services, said residents don’t often think about preventative healthcare due to the more immediate pressures of housing and food costs. West Valley Community Services is partnering with the mobile health clinic for food distribution.

“We have many clients saying, ‘I only take half of my prescription medication, because I cannot afford it, and so I try to make my bills match,'” Venkatraman told San José Spotlight. “So having a program like this, I think it’s an innovative and a very creative response that we have put together, which can be replicated.”

De Anza political science student Kayla Khangaldy, who is from South San Jose, said she’s been fortunate to have good insurance, but not everyone can afford it. She thinks the mobile health clinic will be great for the community.

“I don’t believe people should not have to worry about the price of having a doctor’s appointment, or worried about having to see a doctor … because of how much it costs,” Khangaldy told San José Spotlight.

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X. Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email protected] or @CasasPerezRed on X.