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v0.31:Health care

From Dwarf Fortress Wiki
Revision as of 19:10, 4 April 2010 by Albedo (talk | contribs) (→‎Doctor Skills: & non-doctor - equiv of old "Health Care")
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This article is about an older version of DF.
This is about healthcare in the new version, for the skill see Health care (skill).

Hospitals are a zone designated via the zone menu. Hospitals use any beds, tables, traction benches, and boxes/bags that are within these zones. You may also alter how much Template:L, Template:L, Template:Ls, Template:Les, Template:L for casts, Template:Ls, and Template:L hospitals use.

In the new version of Dwarf Fortress, doctors are dwarves assigned to any of the five medical labors; dressing wounds, diagnosis, surgery, setting bones, and suturing. All doctors in the fortress operate under the instruction of the Chief Medical Dwarf, one of the new appointed Template:Ls, and presumably only perform medicine on a dwarf after treatment has been prescribed by a diagnostician.

All beds within a hospital zone are automatically Hospital beds, where injured dwarves will go to recuperate.

Doctor Skills

There are five doctor skills - how critical they are is unclear atm, but from Toady's pre-release comments we can assume they are moderately important to the healing process.

(And if you choose "Template:L", one of the 7 dwarves has Adequate (+2) Template:L in all 5 of these skills - which says something. "What?" is not perfectly clear either, but something.)
  • Wound Dresser
  • Diagnostician
  • Surgeon
  • Bone Doctor
  • Suterer

Non-doctor skills

"Non"-doctors have 2 Template:Ls that contribute to healthcare:

  • Feed Patients/Prisoners
  • Recover Wounded

Note that these are not Template:Ls - they do not gain experience, but merely are activities that can be turned on/off for each dwarf. By default, your 7 starting dwarfs all* start with these labors designated.

(* & all migrants?)

Setting up a Hospital

The first thing you will want to do when carving out your hospital is ensure you have enough beds to keep dwarves unable to walk. Next, hit the 'i' key, and set up a hospital zone in the area you plan on having your hospital in. After this is done, build containers (b-h), bags and/or chests. These are essential since it is where hospital supplies are stashed. Without ample containers, your hospital will not have the supplies it needs, leading to an inability to perform most operations. From the 'i' menu for the zone, you are able to change the maximum amount of supplies in your hospital as well as seeing how many are currently stored in the hospital's chests. You will next want to build tables and a Traction Bench(see below) to allow for surgeries. Turn on the various healthcare labors for some doctor dwarves, and you should be pretty much set.


A traction bench is used by a Template:L in a Template:L to immobilize a dwarf that has sustained complex or overlapping fractures.

It is constructed in the Template:L, and requires a Template:L, a Template:L, and a Template:L to construct.

Crutches are represented with the symbol .

A dwarf that needs to use a crutch/crutches will gain experience in the Crutch Walking skill, which... (does something for the sorry blighter, hopefully).


As of 0.31.01, soap production is bugged, so you will have to make do without. - It is possible to make soap through the manager screen - --Nuker w 01:21, 3 April 2010 (UTC)


Casts: Not to be confused with castes

Powder for casts can be made at _____ by a _____ with ____. They can also be bought at embark for 3P per unit - each unit comes with a free Template:L. (If diff types of stone powder are available, there is no practical diff in use - this editor has only seen gypsum powder - needs verification.)