Gov. John Carney’s budget proposal would cut funding for a van that travels around the state offering low-income patients mammograms and cervical cancer screenings.
Last year, the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition’s mobile health screening van gave mammograms to about 1,000 women.
Christina Richter, the coalition’s vice president of development, calls it a “safe space.” Forty-one percent of the people they see are Hispanic.
“For a lot of people, they need to see themselves mirrored back and our staff does that, [some of] our nurse practitioners are bilingual,” said Richter, noting three staff members speak Spanish and one speaks Haitian Creole. “So people feel it’s a safe space, you know, they can come out of the shadows and receive health care.”
The van has been on the road for two years, but the coalition has held the operating contract since 2005, said Vicky Cooke, the former executive director of the coalition. It was built to do mammograms but it was also built to provide additional screenings like pap smears and tests for high blood pressure and cholesterol.
“We’ve been making significant headway in providing those additional screenings,” Cooke said.
But officials from Governor Carney’s administration argue the van is no longer needed.
In a statement, Division of Public Health Director Karyl Rattay said the division’s own screening program and Medicaid have made mammograms more accessible for women.
“With coverage in Delaware now so widespread, it is important for the state to examine areas where we may have gaps in care and determine if dollars should be redirected to bolster these areas,” Rattay said. “DPH is discussing approaches with the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition to ensure women who need services have access to them in the most efficient way possible.”
The state would save almost $280,000 for hanging up the keys to the van.