On the Lower Ward roster, a filled square means a healer has agreed to take the night. It does not tell a patient when that healer can leave the East Gallery, cross two gates and reach the clinic. The distinction is the whole argument now before the health table.
The office counts unfilled posts. The patients who came to the clinic after the second bell count a longer measure: how long the room stayed without a second pair of hands. The cupboard log and referral slips show that these hours cluster around shift changes, not evenly across the week.
No one is arguing that a name on a roster is worthless. It is the starting point for planning. But a staffing report that stops at the roster answers the easiest question and leaves the urgent one untouched: can the person assigned to care arrive in time to provide it?
The next review should publish both measures side by side: assigned hours and arrival intervals. That would let the city compare a rotating healer with a second fixed post without pretending those arrangements serve every call equally.
Care is a public system. A promise recorded in chalk becomes credible only when the door opens while someone still needs help.
