The second healer’s line on the Lower Ward clinic roster was not empty. A substitute had been named beside it. The referral book tells a more complicated story: on one night, the first call was entered before the substitute reached the clinic, and the family was directed uphill to the public infirmary.
The walk is short on the city map and longer for a parent carrying a tired child after the late bell. The family asked not to be named. The referral slip records the time of the call, the time the substitute arrived and the destination written by the night physician, Issen Thal.
The health office counts a post as filled when a substitute is assigned. Patients experience the hours before that person arrives. The roster and referral book can be compared, but the public report has not yet put the two times beside one another.
The health table plans to compare roster gaps with arrival times for the same nights. The result may show that a substitute covered most of a shift, or that a particular bell left the lower ward without a healer. Either answer needs the time, not only the name in the box.
