Editing Sector General (section)

==Background==
Sector General is a gigantic multi-species [[hospital]] [[space station]] founded as a peace-promoting project by two heroes from opposite sides of humanity's first full interstellar war.<ref name="White1983Sector General">{{cite book | title=Sector General | author=James White | publisher=[[Ballantine Books|Ballantine]] | year=1983 | chapter=Accident | isbn=0-7394-2588-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/alienemergencies00jame }}</ref> The hospital accommodates patients and staff from dozens of species, with different environmental requirements, behaviors and ailments, but many of the stories feature types of patient that the builders did not anticipate.<ref name="Langford1983WhiteandSectorGeneral">{{Cite news 
| author= Dave Langford | title=James White and Sector General
| newspaper=[[White Dwarf (magazine)|White Dwarf]] | year=1983
| url=http://www.sectorgeneral.com/articleslangford.html | access-date=2008-12-18 
}} Also at {{cite web 
| url=http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/odyss01.html | access-date=2008-12-18 
| title=Critical Mass | author= Dave Langford
}}</ref> Initially most of the stories center round the career of Doctor Conway, who rises from junior surgeon to the top level, Senior Diagnostician.<ref name="White1962HospitalStation" /><ref name="White1985Star Healer" /> In the fourth book the Galactic Federation decides that the emergency service which the hospital offers to victims of space accidents and planetary catastrophes is its most effective means of making [[First contact (science fiction)|peaceful contact]] with new spacefaring species, which allows the series to expand its range of plots, characters and locations.<ref name="White1979Ambulance Ship" /><ref name="Stableford2004HistDictJamesWhite">{{Cite book 
| author=Brian M. Stableford | contribution=James White | pages=385–386 
| title=Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Literature 
| publisher=Scarecrow Press| year=2004 | isbn=0-8108-4938-0 
| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nzmIPZg5xicC&q=%22james+white%22+biography+science+fiction&pg=PA249 
| access-date=2008-12-18 
}}</ref>

White said that [[The Troubles]] in [[Northern Ireland]] induced him to write about the sort of world he would like to live in, and that he disliked war and militarists.<ref name="White1993FullTimeHobbyist" /> As a youth he wanted to become a doctor, but had to go out to work.<ref name="SectorgeneralBiobiblio" /> Hence he relied on epidemics and natural disasters to provide the conflicts that stories need to make them interesting. He credited his wife, who was an intensive care nurse at the height of The Troubles, for advice on medical details and for pointing out how [[Military Chaplain|padres]] often did more good than doctors for disturbed patients, which inspired ''[[The Genocidal Healer]]''.<ref name="White1993FullTimeHobbyist" />