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Spurred on by some curious threads - a question pops into my head.

How is medical care handled within the Imperium?

Yes alright, i know the Grimdark Knee-Jerk reaction is about to kick in.

You are a sick commoner - Death.

You are a wounded IG - Death.

etc. etc.

But we already know this not to be the case (if we are to take even some of the BL novels to be true).

I'm assuming a hierarchical "ladder" exists (this is the Imperium after all, when is it not attempting to be hierarchical) with


Feral World - Tribal Healer (lowest possible rung of the ladder)

Civilized World/Hive World - Physician-Medicae

IG - Physician-Medicae

SoB - Hospitaler

Adeptus Astartes - Apothecary

Forge World - Magos Biologis or Genetor (the two arent equivalent right? or are they?)


Thoughts?

There's 2 official Imperial agencies that deal with health care, the Officio Medicae (which comes off as a kind of Health Ministry) and the Sororitas Hospitalers. It's safe to say your average Imperial citizen isn't going to have much access to either of them. That being said, obviously every world has its own varying degrees of medical care.

It would, of course, depend on your position in the Imperium.

As an aside, isn't there a little section in the Dark Eldar codex about them seriously crippling the Imperium's ability to administer healthcare or somesuch?

Hazardous Harry wrote:It would, of course, depend on your position in the Imperium.

As an aside, isn't there a little section in the Dark Eldar codex about them seriously crippling the Imperium's ability to administer healthcare or somesuch?

They stole (and then lost) a STC which would of cured many diseases and poisons that are in the Imperium, before the Imperium had the chance to copy it.

Harriticus wrote:There's 2 official Imperial agencies that deal with health care, the Officio Medicae (which comes off as a kind of Health Ministry) and the Sororitas Hospitalers. It's safe to say your average Imperial citizen isn't going to have much access to either of them. That being said, obviously every world has its own varying degrees of medical care.

Medicine and healthcare are local goverment's problem, not imperial (aside of global threats like interplanetary plagues etc), but due to grimdarkness for most populated worlds it's looks like Victorian England meets modern 3rd world countries - ie if you're of privilleged class/wealthy you'll have access to really good doctors, if your planetary goverment is relatively benevolent or vigilant - most probably you'll have basic (mostly preventative) healthcare for sake of epidemy prevention, if goverment is too corrupt/don't care - you're at mercy of chance to find and afford doctor. And somewhere there's Medicaes and charities who desperately fight diseases while being voefully underfunded and undermanned...

Hmmm.

So then which organization or faction within the Imperium can offer the highest level of medical care?

I'd like to say the Mechanicus of course, but the organization's general tilt toward the "machinization" of the human form makes me wonder if they even bother too much with biological matters.

After all, they do tend to follow the Cyberpunk philosophy of "When its broken, replace it with the titanium version of it.."

ContemplativeSphinx wrote:So then which organization or faction within the Imperium can offer the highest level of medical care?

I'd like to say the Mechanicus of course, but the organization's general tilt toward the "machinization" of the human form makes me wonder if they even bother too much with biological matters.

They do - it's a science after all. In the Enforcer Omnibus Arbitor Senioris Calpurnia visits the local Head Magos for her planet-specific inoculations after being assigned to a new system, for example.

Harriticus wrote:There's 2 official Imperial agencies that deal with health care, the Officio Medicae (which comes off as a kind of Health Ministry) and the Sororitas Hospitalers. It's safe to say your average Imperial citizen isn't going to have much access to either of them.

The Orders Hospitaller of the Adepta Sororitas do charity work as a matter of course. They also view treating diseases as holy work, keeping the purity of the population.

But there's a limited number of them.

Also, the Orders Hospitaller of the Adepta Sororitas are the ones who give the best medical treatment in most recent fluff. It's almost supernatural. Sometimes it is.

There's a civilian medic in the Ravenor books (possibly one in the Eisenhorn ones too).
It's a more extreme version of modern healthcare - if you're rich, your life can be prolonged and enhanced by medical technology. Wealthy individuals can live well past 100 with a decent quality of life.
If you're poor, tough gak. Maybe you can scrape together enough money to have a cancer treated, but that's it.
Or maybe Dan Abnett was just ripping on American healthcare.

Should also be noted you don't need advanced healthcare to survive a battle wound. There were plenty of crippled ex-soldiers pre-industrial times. Even with a bit of basic anti-septic, survival rates are pretty high. But battlefield medicine is not the same as civilian medicine. A wounded soldier can fight again with gained experience, there's a vested interest in keeping him alive. The civilian population, less so.

Varies from world to world.

Such is the way of Bureaucracy. Some planets can have enough medicae to cure the populace of its needs. In some the planet only can treat the rich.

And of course the rich have plenty of options however, from being able to extend their lives for centuries, to reviving from near death.