SAN JOSE – North Santa Clara County residents are one step closer to having their first County comprehensive primary care clinic in the County’s 173-year history. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors today unanimously approved $18.5 million to be used for improvements to the 24,500 square foot facility located on the Palo Alto-Mountain View Border at 4151 Middlefield Road.
“It’s essential that every one of our residents have access to primary and preventative health care. Otherwise, they wait too long, end up seriously ill, and then find themselves in the emergency room,” said Simitian, who serves as Chair of the County’s Health and Hospital Committee. “Having conveniently located, preventative health care takes some of the cost, stress and worry out of visiting a doctor. It allows people to focus on their health, family, work, and school. Healthier people can go to work or school and contribute to the community, instead of being unnecessarily sidelined by illness.”
Construction on improvements to the building is already underway; initial construction began in late October 2023. The interior of the building is being rebuilt to include critical infrastructure to support the provision of health care. The allocated funds also will be used to purchase essential equipment such as furniture, fixtures, medical equipment, and information technology equipment.
“It’s feeling very real now,” said Simitian. “The North County has had a distinct lack of County medical facilities to serve the community. I’m looking forward to a walk-through in January to see the progress.”
Currently, there are no County primary care clinics located in the North County communities of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, or Palo Alto, or anywhere in Simitian’s district (which includes all or part of nine different cities and includes 400,000 residents).
As of last year, Valley Health Center Sunnyvale (the closest County clinic to North County) was at capacity, seeing almost 6,000 residents yearly, with a wait time of more than a month to see a doctor. “A new North County clinic will serve local residents, take some of the pressure off our overburdened Valley Health Center Sunnyvale, and reduce the ‘far-too-long’ wait times for appointments,” said Simitian.
The planned services are part of the County of Santa Clara Health System’s health care delivery system, Santa Clara Valley Healthcare. The new two-story clinic with ample space for patient consults will provide primary care, mental health, OB/GYN, pediatrics, and urgent care services. Lab, pharmacy, and imaging services will also be available along with rotating specialty care services. Patients in the North County communities of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, and Palo Alto will be able to access these services much closer to home when the clinic opens in late 2024.
Over the past ten years, Simitian has been an advocate for bringing County health care services to the North County and West Valley, which he represents. Raising awareness of this need, he has noted, “My district is the only District in the County without a County health clinic.” In fact, every one of the other four districts in the County has at least three County clinics and/or hospitals.”
To meet the health care needs of residents in the North County, the County has provided a number of new health care resources to serve them. These include:
A specialty health care clinic next door to community partner Planned Parenthood in Mountain View, which provides limited specialty care, supplementing the care provided by Planned Parenthood and other community health care providers,
A retail pharmacy co-located with the specialty health care clinic in Mountain View,
A dental clinic on El Camino Real, also in Mountain View; and,
an allcove site to serve young people with mental and physical health resources and services on Middlefield Road in Palo Alto.
“These local health care services are critical to individuals and families that simply can’t travel to see County physicians and clinicians in San Jose or South San Jose,” said Simitian. “Specific health care services will rotate through the North County clinic as needed, bringing quality, affordable care closer to patients and families.”
Simitian first introduced a North County healthcare clinic proposal (in October 2021) directing County administration to report to the Board with options for building a North County/West Valley primary care health center in District Five. In response, County administration identified options for building a primary care clinic in the northern portion of the County; Tuesday’s Board action puts the County on a path to open such a clinic in the summer of 2024.
Simultaneously, Simitian is pursuing the development of a County health clinic in the West Valley on the De Anza Community College campus in Cupertino.