McCoy's Medical staff

[Shatinator]

Hello-well this is actually my first thread after yrs on the board, so here it goes. After reading the thread on the crew size of the TOS Enterprise, I got to wondering; how could two doctors and a handful of nurses deal with all the demands of hundreds of starfleet members. Esspecailly under battle situations. Think Balance of Terrror, yes they only lost one, but that can not be the total number of injuries. Also, Journey to Babel, the whole medical staff seems to be operating on Sarek. So community what's your take?

The Shatinator

 

[Mytran]

McCoy was the CMO, but I always got the impression that was a larger medical staff available. For instance, in "A Private Little War" when McCoy was absent Doctor M'Benga took over. He also appeared in "That Which Survives"

 

[Shatinator]

Yes, Mytran that is the second doctor I refered at the start, but where are the other doctors? The Enterprise is a big ship with alot of crew members, that is without adding in any visiting aliens that may need attention. Also can you imagine what yearly physicals of the crew were like (i.e. For the World is Hollow...)

 

[Marten]

Enterprise-D, with more than twise as much crew, only had one doctor and a bunch of nurses.

 

[Warped9]

I think some of the novels made references to other doctors and other members of the medical staff. I think this is simply one of those things that couldn't couldn't be shown because of time and budget, but we can assume they're there.

Once again since the TOS writers derived much of their thinking from real life experience one could extrapolate from what a naval ship with similar sized crew would have as a medical staff.

And Navy folks around here?

 

[Pauln6]

Helen Noel was a psychiatrist - i.e. she was also an MD, so that's 3 qualified doctors on board. I'm sure we see a number of background nurses aswell.

 

[Warped9]

^^ You could assume Noel replaced Elizabeth Dehner after she got her brain fried in WNMHGB.

 

[Mytran]

Enterprise-D, with more than twise as much crew, only had one doctor and a bunch of nurses.

Doctor Selar, anyone?

 

[Mysterion]

Enterprise-D, with more than twise as much crew, only had one doctor and a bunch of nurses.

Doctor Selar, anyone?

The TNG Technical manual gives the Ent-D a medical staff as follows:

CMO
4 Staff MD
3 Medical Technicians
12 RN
8-12 research/lab personnel (attached, but available for emergency situations)

Now, that's for a crew of around 1000. You could probably scale that down a bit for the TOS Ent's crew of 430.

 

[Gil T.Azell]

Enterprise-D, with more than twise as much crew, only had one doctor and a bunch of nurses.

Doctor Selar, anyone?

The TNG Technical manual gives the Ent-D a medical staff as follows:

CMO
4 Staff MD
3 Medical Technicians
12 RN
8-12 research/lab personnel (attached, but available for emergency situations)

Now, that's for a crew of around 1000. You could probably scale that down a bit for the TOS Ent's crew of 430.

You could prbably cut that by 1/3 for a crew of 430, mabe add a few when you pick up a deligation?

 

[Green Shirt]

Enterprise-D, with more than twise as much crew, only had one doctor and a bunch of nurses.

Doctor Selar, anyone?

Or Dr. Hill, if Selar is on Plomeek Soup break.

 

[Marten]

Hmm, my memory must be faltering. I was absolutely certain Selar was a nurse.

 

[Warped9]

Hmm, my memory must be faltering. I was absolutely certain Selar was a nurse.

Your memory is failing.

 

[STEPhon IT]

There were more Doctors on board The Enterprise D, and the Classic Star Ship Enterprise but there were only one CMO.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

McCoy's medical staff? Doesn't arrive 'til Tuesday.

 

[Lor'Vela]

Whilst I am sure that there is a sufficient number of medical staff to meet the needs of a starship's crew under normal circumstances, I've always thought the number medical staff on all series of Star Trek (perhaps except TNG) was too low. If there was a medical emergency and the CMO or a few members if his/her staff were incapacitated, just how would this emergency be co-ordinated? The problem is even worse on VOY and especially ENT, since Dr. Phlox and Nurse Cutler seemed to make up the entire medical department. If he was incapacitated, then there would be a lot of casualties that would go unattended.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think nurses are qualified to supervise all medical matters, in which case it would be up to the Doctors onboard.

 

[Green Shirt]

^^ You could assume Noel replaced Elizabeth Dehner after she got her brain fried in WNMHGB.

Wow, a reference to two delicacies in one sentence.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Fried brains is delicious.

 

[T'Girl]

Being a quasi-military ship, we can assume that dozen of the crew were trained medics, certainly some of the security crew were. After/during a battle the nurses would do most of the medium weight stuff, leaving the full doctors to handle the serious problems.

 

[Admiral Shran]

McCoy's medical staff? Doesn't arrive 'til Tuesday.

You left Spacedock without a medical staff?!