Mayor Rahm Emanuel will try to fix a troubled city program that provides mammograms to low-income women by spending more money next year rather than privatizing the service as some experts wanted him to do.
The moves come after the Tribune reported last month that the Emanuel administration had sent layoff notices to the program’s workers after the state cut funding for alleged mismanagement. The state had criticized the city for allegedly taking too long to refer some women with abnormal screenings for further tests and had unqualified personnel diagnosing women with abnormalities.
The mayor announced Wednesday that he’ll spend $200,000 more in city money next year, an amount that falls short of the $296,000 the state took away this year amid concerns.
Emanuel said the extra money would deliver mammography services to 1,500 more uninsured women next year. In the year ending June 30, the program served 2,914 patients at five city clinics — down from 4,942 in the 2009 budget year. The program is designed largely to reduce the higher incidence of breast cancer mortality among African-American women.
“It’s all about access,” Emanuel said while appearing at Roseland Community Hospital, where some of the mammograms will be offered. “It is one of the few cancers which, if you diagnose it early enough, you can actually deal with it. And it is essential that we give people here in the community and the surrounding area access immediately.”
The mammography program also will continue to be run by the city Public Health Department, even though some experts in the field said the city might have been on the right track when it was looking into getting a private firm to run the program.
Anne Marie Murphy, executive director of the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force, applauded the city funding increase but said her nonprofit agency still encourages the Public Health Department “to continue to look for mammography experts” to run the program and continues to work with the department “on quality improvement.”
Unions representing city workers protested the privatization effort, contending it would result in fewer women getting much-needed services.
