City Government

RNs Picket to Save Doctors Medical Center

Published

11 years ago

July 4, 2014

Following a decision by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to table a sales tax that would have helped save embattled Doctors Medical Center (DMC) in San Pablo, the hospital’s registered nurses held a picket Tuesday.

They are demanding the county assume operation of the medical center and retain it as a full service hospital.

Anything less than a full service hospital would abandon residents of West Contra Costa County and expose hundreds of thousands of area residents to the threat of no emergency and hospital care in their community, according to the RNs.

Registered nurses picket to save Doctors Medical Center

“As a nurse I have served the West Contra Costa community for 40 years,” said Charlene Arrington, ICU RN at Doctors Medical Center. “DMC provides essential hospital care for which Contra Costa County is culpable and responsible to provide to all residents.

< p>“Anything less would be discriminatory. The county must act to maintain DMC to serve the community now and in the future.”

The picket line was held July 1, 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., at Doctors Medical Center, 2000 Vale Rd. in San Pablo.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United says the hospital serves many indigent patients, and a closure would have a disparate and disproportionate impact on the health of African Americans and senior citizens in violation of their civil rights.

As the only provider of advanced cardiac care for heart attack victims in West County, closure of the hospital would leave the area with only 15 of the county’s 242 emergency room beds – and in sharp contrast with East County with higher income residents and more hospital care.

Assembly candidate Tony Thurmond speaks at rally to keep Doctors Medical Center open.

“I hate to say this, but I know that if this was going on in Orinda, this wouldn’t be happening,” Richmond Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles recently told the Contra Costa Times. “A solution would be found.”

Some have proposed that the hospital be downsized with limited service, such as a standalone emergency room. But that would be in direct contravention of state law that requires a facility with emergency services to at least also include other hospital services needed to accompany an ER, especially an operating room and intensive care services.

To run a limited hospital with an ER in name only would require specific enabling state legislation, “but that would do a great disservice to those residents of West Contra Costa County who need a full hospital, not a shell of a hospital, especially in a medically underserved region where there have been repeated oil refinery accidents,” said CNA co-president Deborah Burger, RN.

Even without a sales tax increase, the county has the resources to operate DMC, said CNA noting a recent report of a 6.5 percent uptick in county finances, and the added need for patient care as a result of enrollments under the Affordable Care Act as additional indications that the county should intervene to keep the hospital open.

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

5 days ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.