Medical and Health Care
Health and Medical facilities, and care, will have to adapt to the numbers of people in the SeaStead, and their relative risk factors (ie, workers will require more trauma than retirees, who will require more long-term monitoring).
Medical facilities should be located centrally, but don't require prime locations such as ocean views. If possible, they should be located where motion of the structure is minimized. Power requirements will have to be accommodated, for imaging technologies (Xray, CT scan, MRI, etc) and airflow must be controlled to afford isolation in the event of an infectious disease. Dental care will be required in addition to medical care.
Disposal of medical waste will be required.
Potential for Revenue Generation One potential income stream for a SeaStead is specialty medical treatment clinics, a sort of medical tourism. Facilities for this would fall into the commercial realm and are not discussed here.
Need for Medical Capability
Due to the isolation of the SeaScape (at least part of the time), evacuation of the injured may not be feasible. Further, the potential for a medical disaster such as a fire, or aircraft crash, must be considered. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy should be available for treatment of diving injuries and other appropriate injuries.
For example, if the SeaStead was off the coast West Africa (say, Angola) the nearest large cities would be Luanda, Angola; Kinshasa, Congo (Zaire); and Windhoek, Namibia - none of which could handle a severe accident or illness, at least not with first-world medicine. Further, it's possible that all three cities would be beyond flight range of any aircraft onboard. For this reason, the SeaScape needs to be self-sufficient medically.
Required Staffing With an estimated 10,000 person population, the following medical professionals might be needed:
Family Physician
Emergency Physician (doubles as general physician), hyperbaric medicine qualified.
Physician Assistants (2)
Surgeon, General (assists on orthopedic surgery)
Surgeon, Orthopedic (assists on general surgery)
Dentists (2)
Dental Assistant (2) with lab capabilities
Anesthesiologist or CRNA (2)
Surgical Nurse
General Nurse (phlebotomist, X-ray tech)
CT / MRI Technician
Medical Assistant (4)
Firefighter / Paramedics (6-8) with expanded or full scope of practice. These can be dual-trained firefighter/paramedics with specialty training in dive rescue/recovery. All should also be qualified as hyperbaric chamber attendants and at least three should be hyperbaric chamber operators
Automated lab equipment would provide a low-manpower method of blood and urine chemistry, microbiology lab services, etc.
