Governor Gives Doctors Medical Center A $3M Shot In The Arm

SAN PABLO (CBS) -- Governor Brown has signed a measure that will give $3 million to cash-strapped Doctors Medical Center.

The measure, SB833, is not a cure, but it will definitely give the West Contra Costa Healthcare District some time to come up with new partners, new funding, and a new plan to provide healthcare in some form to the community.

The medical center will stay open at least a little while longer.

But, Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner said the money that SB883 provides the debt-ridden hospital is only a band-aid, "to give us another window of time to see if we can't find funding to provide long-term sustainability."

The hospital's emergency room closed in August and its closure is already being blamed for one death because the next closest hospital was simply too far away.