| NOTES |
The Conway class is the ultimate in interspecies hospitals. The huge,
wheel-shaped space station is equipped with the very latest in medical care,
capable of handling any of the species in known space. Medical specialists from
many different races make up the medical staff of the Conway.
The ship is unarmed; it is marked with all the symbols for freely-given help
known to the major races. However, it is fitted with nuclear dampers; the idea
of an atomic accident anywhere near just doesen't bear thinking about.
The ten fuelling shuttles carry enough purification equipment to filter
their own load of fuel between the gas giant and the ship. If the station is
in a system where a reliable fuel supply can be obtained, the space for the
shuttles is filled with more cargo; most of the cargo is LS supplies and
medical/prosthetic supplies.
The ship can be conveyed through jumpspace by the attachment of jump
modules, much in the same way as a jump shuttle to a system defence boat.
The crew breakdown is as follows: The flight crews for the emergency
responders are only the pilot & copilot; medics are provided as appropriate to
the occassion from the station's crew. The 25 troops are general security staff.
The 130 medical crew are actual doctors and surgeons; the stewards provide the
nursing staff. The high passengers are the patients, kept in the equivalent of
standard sickbay accommodation. There are actually 50 operating theatres, each
10 times normal size. The high number of crew staterooms allows for visiting
specialists, and also for the fact that some of the accommodation is designed
for alien species (a high proportion of the surgeons are Virushi (qv)). Also
installed are ten model/8 starship computers, entirely devoted to medical usage.
These store (among other things) the entire accumulated medical knowledge of all
the species in the station's sector, and general medical information on as many
other races as is possible.
The ship is provided with an assortment of robots, trained in the care of
patients, and a small contingent of experimental humaniform robotic surgeons.
These are still being evaluated, but one use which has already become apparent
is with infectious diseases, which the robot of course cannot contract.
The reasoning behind the station is quite simple. Unlike earlier hospitals,
there is less urgency to the actual transit of the casualties to the station;
most cultures can place patients into medical suspended animation, so that the
requirement for rapid succour becomes urgent only upon unfreezing at the
hospital. As a result, the station usually ends up dealing with all the very
worst of casualties and diseases from its sector (an assignment of one per
sector is normal), plus all the medical research normally carried on in
universities.
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