Madera hospital still closed, thousands without emergency services

Dr. Mohammad Ashraf has been in Madera since 1980. He says it was shocking to see the community hospital close its doors, because he knew tens of thousands of people were now going to have to go on without immediate access to emergency services.

"People are going to keep dying. When are they going to take care of this?" said Dr. Ashraf.

Madera Community Hospital closed its doors in December of last year, stripping away emergency services to local residents.

Dr. Ashraf said one of his patients died because of the lack of medical services in the area. Ashraf has worked as a cardiologist in Madera for over forty years. He said was working at the hospital part time before it closed.

Now, he's frustrated for his patients and others in the community.

"Patients are nervous. Every patient has asked me, what should we do if we have an emergency," said Dr. Ashraf.

He said after the town hall meeting on Thursday, he feels helpless.

"Everybody says there's nothing we can do," said Dr. Ashraf.

But California state Assembly member Esmeralda Soria said she's making great strides to ensure Madera's hospital reopens, but also making sure something like this never happens again.

"I actually introduced a piece of legislation, AB 4-12. Which was introduced several weeks ago and will be going through the legislative process," said Soria.

She said the new legislation will provide emergency funding to hospitals who are at risk of closing or already closed, like Madera Community Hospital.

She said it's not just the community that's affected by this closure. Nursing students are at risk of not graduating because they can't complete their clinical course work.

"This goes beyond just emergency services. It was a training ground for the future workforce of our community," said Soria.

Getting the hospital open again is personal to her.

"I am a daughter of farm workers and I know what it is to live in a family that doesn't have a lot of resources. And predominantly the folks that use this hospital are like my parents," said Soria.

Soria says the fate of AB 4-12 should be determined by September of this year.