Patient A patient was a lifeform that required medical and / or psychological treatment . An ambulatory case was a patient who was not injured badly enough to require transport by wheelchair or stretcher but rather could walk without assistance . Patients usually wore a hospital gown when undergoing continuing care to facilitate their treatment . Patients in sickbay on the had access to library tape s , including technical manual s for the ship . ( ) In 2365 , Dr . Katherine Pulaski described Captain Jean - Luc Picard ' s plan to destroy the to defeat Nagilum as " curing the disease by killing the patient . " ( ) When Commander William T . Riker told Counselor Deanna Troi stories as he was undergoing treatment for a Surata IV microbe infection , she told him he was " a very entertaining patient . " ( ) In 2369 , following an attack by the Lenarian s , Doctor Beverly Crusher told a medic to tell Dr . Selar that she could use ward three for ambulatory cases . ( ) When Dr . Beverly Crusher claimed she was experiencing déjà vu while treating Geordi La Forge for dizziness in 2370 , he told her she must be thinking of another patient . ( ) Later , Worf made a similar claim when she remembered already treating him for a concussion . ( ) While inquiring on a pregnant Spot ' s health that year , Dr . Crusher described the feline as her smallest patient . ( ) Without consent of a close relative , a doctor could not perform surgery on a patient against their will . Dr . Julian Bashir told this to Jake Sisko , who gave the doctor permission to operate on his father . ( ) In 2372 , Bashir gave Quark a case of Alvanian brandy , saying a patient had given it to him as payment but he couldn ' t accept it . ( ) While experiencing a simulated case of the Levodian flu , The Doctor told Kes not to offer his holographic tissue paper to patients . ( ) In 2373 , Dr . Bashir used leaving an imaginary patient on the operating table as an excuse to leave Miles O ' Brien and his wife alone . ( ) One aim of The Doctor ' s personality improvement project was to have " more patience with my patients . " ( ) Treatment of patients . According to doctors . In Doctor Mark Piper ' s experience , the healthiest of patients were " generally off on some reading , " unlike Gary Mitchell after going through the galactic barrier . ( ) In Dr . Leonard McCoy ' s opinion , advanced medical technology alone was ineffective in determining a patient ' s overall health . He preferred to observe firsthand markers , such as " " a healthy set of tonsil s . " " ( ) Given the choice between primitive medical procedures and 23rd century techniques when a life was at stake , however , he preferred to opt for the less invasive methods . ( ) McCoy took Joe Tormolen ' s death hard in 2266 , saying that he ' d never lost a patient like him before , a man who ordinarily wouldn ' t give up . ( ) According to Dr . Crusher , " " The first tenet of good medicine is never make the patient any worse . " " ( ) When Garak told Julian Bashir that he needed to know who he really was in 2370 , the doctor replied by saying , " " I ' m a doctor . You ' re my patient . That ' s all I need to know . " " ( ) Cautioning Seven of Nine , The Doctor told her that patients who tried to self - diagnose always assumed the worst . ( ) According to patients . In 2366 , Q criticized Beverly Crusher ' s bedside manner , saying that her patients probably recovered quickly just to get away from her . ( ) According to Rachel Garrett , doctors always overprotected their patients . ( ) In 2367 , when faced with the possibility of losing her empathic abilities forever , Deanna Troi once described how she ' d seen many patients treated differently by their friends and colleagues as a result of disability . ( ) In 2371 , Jadzia Dax was nervous about going back to the Symbiosis Commission as a patient , saying it was worse than being an initiate . ( ) According to machines . During a 2268 trial of the M - 5 multitronic unit aboard the " Enterprise " One of several efficiency measures taken by the computer was the shutting down of all systems in sickbay until there were patients to treat . ( ) The Jye Allocator dictated medical care based on a patient ' s usefulness rather than need . ( ) According to others . When Bashir managed to save the life of Vedek Bareil against all odds in 2371 , Benjamin Sisko chided him for his modesty , saying , " " It ' s not every doctor that can lose a patient and then has him back on his feet in a few weeks . " " ( ) In 2376 , The Doctor added a daydreaming algorithm to his program himself . When the algorithm malfunctioned , causing him to daydream all the time whether he decided to or not , B ' Elanna Torres commented that " " A doctor who operates on himself has a petaQ for a patient . " " ( ) First patients . Doctor Antaak ' s first patient was his pet targ Boshar . As a child , he stitched up the targ ' s side after it was torn open . ( ) Julian Bashir ' s first patient was his teddy bear Kukalaka , whom he re - stuffed and sewed the leg of after it became damaged , despite his mother ' s desire to discard the toy . In 2372 , he related this to Ekoria , describing it as his first surgery . When she asked him why he kept persisting in sewing up the ragged object , Bashir replied that he " " wouldn ' t be much of a doctor if I gave up on a patient , would I ? " " ( ) Particularly difficult patients . Spock once described McCoy as " the worst patient in the entire crew of the " Enterprise . " " . ( ) Jonathan Archer had heard that doctors make the worst patients . ( ) Beverly Crusher believed therapist s were second only to doctors as far as being bad patients . ( ) Crusher also described Worf to Dr . Toby Russell as a difficult patient . ( ) The Doctor believed that Vulcan s made the worst patients . ( ) In 2376 , he sarcastically responded to a skeptical Lewis Zimmerman , who believed his program to be obsolete , that " " I also have an exceptionally high tolerance for difficult patients . " " ( ) In 2377 , when he expressed a lack of surprise at finding sickbay " fugitive " Seven of Nine with B ' Elanna Torres in ' s engineering section , Torres remarked , " " We difficult patients need to stick together . " " ( )