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[Mishrak]

One of my Marksdwarves ran out of bolts while fighting a zombie, and got beaten up a bit.  Broke her hip to be exact.  She was helped to the hospital where she then was completely ignored by the doctors until she died from thirst.

So I tried a few things.  First, all 4 of my doctor units (including my chief medical dwarf noble) had the skills toggled to handle her.  I turned them all on each one just for the heck of it.  All they did was idle in the kitchen doing nothing, taking breaks, or drinking.  Then I tried to set a burrow to confine them to the hospital hoping that would trigger the abilities, but only one dwarf actually heeded the burrow, the rest just maintained their "No Job" status.  Oh, except for the one time one went to harvest plants, despite having that ability toggled off ages ago.  The one dwarf who did obey the burrow, just sat there staring at the wall until I finally released the burrow and then he walked right past the hospital room and got himself a drink.  Oh by all means Chief Medical Dwarf, glad you can satisfy your thirst and ignore the dying crossbow dwarf.  My hospital was loaded with supplies.  She needed a crutch and a diagnosis, but no one would do any of that.

Anyone have any ideas as to why this happened?  Or is this pretty standard practice in the medical field for Dwarves?

[i2amroy]

A couple of stupid questions.

How did you change their labors? Was it through DT? It's possible that you forgot to hit the "confirm changes" button or something similar.

Could the doctors access the hospital? There is always the chance that your first dwarf was helped and then you later changed something before they could get there.

Did you have any military alerts still on? That could limit all of your civilians to your "safe" area which could stop the doctors from helping her.

[GiglameshDespair]

Seems quite dwarven. I've never bothered overmuch with hospitals - my dwarves live or they die through their own strength! (They pretty much just die.)

[thiosk]

Does the hospital have a well?  They need clean water, not booze.

[kardwill]

The "lazy doctor" problems I faced in my fortresses seems to be that the "diagnose patient" job takes quite a long time to be generated. It does not appear just after the wonded gets to the hospital, but quite some time AFTER that. So even when the doctor is doing nothing, he can't take the job since there is no job.
So the doctors are not lazy. The fortress just never paged them. 

[Telgin]

I've seen more healthcare related bugs in this release than in my forts in .31.25, but maybe it's just coincidence.

In any case, I've seen several times where injured were brought to the hospital and put in a bed, but ignored by doctors.  Deconstructing the beds helped, and they were carried to another bed where they were tended to.  I would try something like that first in the future.

[Mishrak]

I've seen more healthcare related bugs in this release than in my forts in .31.25, but maybe it's just coincidence.

In any case, I've seen several times where injured were brought to the hospital and put in a bed, but ignored by doctors.  Deconstructing the beds helped, and they were carried to another bed where they were tended to.  I would try something like that first in the future.

That's a really good idea.  I'll give that a try next time.

I did change their labors through DT, but I'm meticulous about updating that and confirming the changes, so that's an unlikely cause.

The hospital is right off of the kitchen area, so easy access to anyone who wants to get there.  No military alerts set. 

Also, definitely a well about 4-5 z-levels down.  A little bit of a trip from the hospital, but nothing unreasonable for them.

[Cozmopolit]

Just as a side note:

Oh, except for the one time one went to harvest plants, despite having that ability toggled off ages ago.

The default setting is that ALL dwarfs will harvest plants. It is toggled in the "Orders" interface (keys "o" "h" if I remember correctly, don't have DF here currently).

As this leads to children harvesting plants (they're included in the "all" part) my fortresses usually have NO dwarfs assigned to harvest labor, at least the kids are doing something useful. (oh yea, and I cheat, I assign them "plant" in Dwarf Therapist aswell. Pig Tail shortage? just make a fresh 10x10 plot and see 50 kids going for it. Also results in them growing up with some skill to switch them from Peasant to Planter before recruiting them).

[greycat]

Also results in them growing up with some skill to switch them from Peasant to Planter before recruiting them).

In my experience, a child who gains a Novice or higher skill will still be labeled a "Peasant" upon reaching adulthood.  But that label will be updated as soon as the child gets another skill level that would cause a title to be recalculated.  (Putting them on duty and taking them off duty might also trigger it, but I'm afraid to test that... I'd rather just have them work the air pumps for a day or two instead.)