Dr. RML Hospital inaugurates India’s first dedicated OPD for transgenders

India’s first dedicated transgender out-patient department clinic at Dr. RML Hospital 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.

“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. “The initiative was started understanding the difficulties encountered by transgender community to access healthcare services, largely due to discomfort and the fear of discrimination and social apathy,” said Dr. Ajay Shukla, director, RML Hospital, about this new venture.

Waiting outside the RML examination room on Friday afternoon, Veronica, 23, who is seeking transition from male to female adds: “While this is a good initiative, there is an urgent need to explain the protocols to us and also gender sensitise the support staff.”

Recalling an insensitive reference by the hospital guard during her previous visit, she says that government intervention is vital for the community as private hospitals are out of our budget. “In private hospitals or clinics, a sex reassignment surgery can range between ₹2 to ₹5 lakh for a male to female (MTF) transition, and for a female to male (FTM) is anywhere between ₹4 to ₹8 lakh. We are looking forward to the help offered by the government set-up,” says Veronica who is pursuing her graduation online to avoid discrimination at educational institute.

Anamika, who is with a local NGO that is helping people from the LGBTQ+ community to access healthcare at this government facility says: “Building trust and being treated in a humane manner will be key to sustaining this venture. Members of the community are marred with the shabby treatment that they get at healthcare facilities and are often exposed to very dangerous situations because of this. We want to change this for them.”

She adds that even routine medical procedures such as getting a registration card at a hospital, getting blood collected and getting a report often become an uphill task because of the stigma attached to the community.