“Coming to a medical establishment as a patient often translates into being harassed or humiliated. Both the public and even some medical/support staff, are still unable to accept us as human beings who are in this space for treatment,” says 23-year-old Ruchi (name changed), seeking sex reassignment surgeries (SRS) at India’s first dedicated transgender out-patient department clinic at Dr. RML Hospital on September 29.
The facility is aimed at batting for inclusive and easily accessible healthcare system for the LGBTQ+ community and has a panel of doctors from across departments, including medicine, urology, psychiatry, dermatology and burns at this weekly OPD which was inaugurated earlier this month on September 17 and is open every Friday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The OPD besides having trained medical staff also has tailor-made infrastructure aimed at making the patient comfortable while they are helped to access healthcare with dignity.
