Every patient admitted to this ward must have a government-issued ID card, submit to a series of sexually transmitted disease screenings and undergo a psychological assessment for suicidal ideation. However, doctors have advised patients to provide a self-attested letter if they lack a government ID or letter.
The state’s first transgender ward will open in Mumbai at the government-run GT Hospital close to CSMT. The 35 to 45 bedded ward will open in January 2023, and each hospital in the JJ Group will then have a trans ward, state health officials announced on Saturday.
Minister of Medical Education Girish Mahajan is the creator of this. The GT Hospital’s first transgender ward, Ward 13, will be inaugurated by the JJ Group of Hospitals’ dean, Dr. Pallavi Saple. The state has released in-depth standard operating procedures for the ward. They start with a definition of a transgender person and instruct medical staff to be “humane, sensitive, non-stigmatizing and non-discriminatory.”
Every patient admitted to this ward must have a government-issued ID card and submit to a series of screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and undergo a psychological assessment for suicidal ideation. Doctors have advised patients to provide a self-attested letter if they lack a government ID or letter.
There will be three toilets and two gender-neutral bathrooms in the GT Hospital ward. Dr. Saple stated that to maintain the patient’s dignity and privacy, a separate examination room and dressing room will also be added to the ward.
Even in big cities like Mumbai, transgender people, particularly hijras, have complained about the stigma and difficulties they encounter when accessing healthcare. The issue was brought up by numerous NGOs working for their local governments, which resulted in the 2019 Preliminary Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act.
For those who identify as transgender, the Act lists healthcare services and free sex reassignment surgery. A transgender ward was earlier announced by the Maharashtra government to be established at B J Medical College in Pune, but it hasn’t yet been put into use. Some states, like Uttar Pradesh, have created wards in some government hospitals and announced plans to establish a five-bed ward for transgender patients in all district hospitals.
According to a senior representative of the state department of medical education, the GT facility will focus primarily on the healthcare requirements of transgender people. The official added that severe patients would be transferred to the critical care units at the treatment doctor’s discretion, but that sex reassignment surgery would not currently be offered. He added that before treating transgender patients, doctors would receive training on how to treat them professionally and without judgment.
