SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A nonprofit consumer group is asking Gov. Jerry Brown to speed up California’s process to discipline physicians who have a history of providing poor care.

Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer group, said Tuesday that the Medical Board of California has failed to discipline more than 700 doctors who had already been disciplined for wrongdoing by hospitals and health management organizations over the past 19 years.

The group wants Brown to investigate why the physicians have not faced discipline from the medical board.

Jennifer Simoes, a spokeswoman for the medical board, said it faces staffing shortages and that Public Citizen’s request is not among the board’s critical goals.

Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford says the backlog is among many problems the governor inherited when he took office.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)