Healers' Association of Hogwarts 24.1 Safety of St Mungos

[pretty-panther.livejournal.com]

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Activity Name: Safety of St Mungos
Deadline: 31st October 11.59pm UTC
Points:Long debate: Participation 10pts, Additional comment: 2pts.
Details:Debate on whether the St Mungos system of only having one magical hospital for the nation is suitable or dangerous considering it could be attacked. On one hand, it keeps things central and the type of healer needed is always on hand but on the other if it was taken over, there is no other hospital ect. Debate it out. :)


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Comments

[c-hrista.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of diversifying so there's always a back up plan. Even at work, I get frustrated if there's only one person able to complete a task -- it creates a Single Point of Failure, should that person be out sick or want to go on vacation or something. I'm not sure about the number of wizards in Britain, but it seems dangerous to only have the one magical hospital for the area. If there was any kind of terrorist activity there, what would happen with magical healthcare? Granted, it seems like many wizards/witches were at least a little versed in Healing spells/potions, but it'd be terrifying to have to rely on an unschooled person for healthcare should something happen to St. Mungos.

Christa / Slytherin

[daisychain-xx.livejournal.com]

I can see why it might be practical to have just a singular health care complex as wizards from all over can reach it easily. Unlike the muggle world where if there were only one hospital, in London for example, then people from Aberdeen wouldn't be able to visit it very often. However, I think Chrisa is right, there is just far too much risk involved in having one establishment. There are far too many followers of darker magic to believe that a revolt can not, and will never take place again. If there can be more than one place to study the magical world, then why not more than one place to remedy the illnesses that it's inhabitants suffer?

Claire/Hufflepuff

[bergeronprocess.livejournal.com]

It's not a good idea. The location is inconvenient for those located in the north of the UK--let alone Northern Ireland--and even Hogwarts students who may need further medical care may find the journey not to their liking. Can the very ill be moved by way of Side-Along Apparition or Floo powder? I can't imagine it would be much fun. (Imagine someone vomiting profusely--maybe vomiting slugs, whatever--who needs care but cannot speak or do anything. If you're tasked with taking them to the hospital, you better put on a poncho or something.)

For that reason, it might be more logical for St. Mungo's to have smaller satellite locations of their hospitals in areas with known Wizarding populations. It's like here in DeKalb County, there's one giant DeKalb Medical Center near our house, but then in the southwest of the county there's a campus, there's a smaller campus in downtown Decatur, etc. There are WellStar hospitals all over the suburbs and exurbs. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has big central hospitals but also smaller satellites to help deal with minor sicknesses and injuries for convenience. It's a good idea to not put all your eggs in one basket, but it is okay to have more intensive stuff in one location.

Emma//Hufflepuff

[storminmay]

I wonder if there ARE other St. Mungo's locations that we haven't heard about? Because even while reading the books I was all "Why is there only one wizard hospital?" But I thought the same about wizard schools until GoF revealed there are other schools of magic. But if St. Mungo's really does only have one location, that seems incredibly unrealistic. It could very easily be attacked, yes, because we've seen throughout the series that even the most protected of magical places can be corrupted. How would the Healers get all of the patients out if an attack happened? Do they have a system in place for that? Can you Apparate a building? It seems incredibly dangerous.

Also, as others have mentioned, how inconvenient would that be if you've been severely injured and need to get there via Side-Along Apparation or Floo Powder or other magical means of travel? Count me out.

Emma//Ravenclaw

[scarletladyy.livejournal.com]

I'd never really thought about it before, but now you mention it, I think it's rather silly to just have one hospital for the whole of the UK! I mean, it's not as if a Healer working at St Mungo's that was required across the other side of the country couldn't get there within seconds, is it? If Healer Day was the best Potions doctor in the wizarding world, and was at St Mungo's when he was needed at another hospital, he could get there by Apparition or Floo straight away. Unlike the Muggle world, they're not confined to their hospitals, so it makes sense to have more than one.

There's the obvious danger issue of if something ever happened to it (attack or burning down or even a corruption within the staff) as well, and I know the wizarding population isn't that big, but what if it ever got full? Like, after a battle or something? Or what if, because there's only one hospital, there aren't enough Healers?

What do we want? MORE HOSPITALS! When do we want them? NOW!

Fairy//Hufflepuff

[slumber.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's smart, because it makes the hospital such a vulnerable target, intentional or none. If something terrible happens to it either via a dark wizard attack or a natural calamity that makes it unstable/inaccessible/etc for the moment, then who else have wizards got? I'm not sure the benefits of a centralized system is worth the catastrophe that might befall patients in case the hospital becomes unusable. The wizarding world has advanced transportation systems that can make transfer between hospitals easy anyway.

Evyclaw

[interchanges.livejournal.com]

Considering the size of the wizarding population in Britain, it makes sense that there's only one wizard hospital. I imagine if there were other hospitals, they wouldn't be as busy. But at the same time, safety is an issue, as if something happened to St. Mungo's- an attack or a highly contagious plague, etc. it would be pretty vulnerable. I also wonder how wizards get the injured to St. Mungo's so quickly. It would make sense to maybe have some small clinics throughout the country that were magically connected so a patient could get emergency treatment if needed and then transferred over to the main branch for recovery. These clinics could also be utilized in the case that St. Mungo's is compromised.

Chelsea/Ravenclaw

[pretty-panther.livejournal.com]

I think that the system of having only one hospital is very dangerous but at the same time, having all of the government officials based at the same place is dangerous too and that is pretty common practice. To argue the other way, financially having one hospital might be the sound option for the wizarding world. Location is not a problem as floo and apparation allow a witch in the North of Scotland to be in London in an instant. Rather than having to finance the same equipment over and over again in several smaller hospitals, having the one building and less equipment sitting unused at a time allows more funds to be used elsewhere such as research into curing long term patients such as the Longbottoms.

Sam/Puff