Transgender clinic likely to be opened at GRH by month-end

Facility for sex reassignment surgery available, says a doctor

MADURAI

The second transgender clinic in Tamil Nadu, which is being set up in Madurai’s Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH), will be completed by the month end and is likely to be inaugurated around that time, according to a reliable source from the hospital.

In 2018, Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar announced in the Assembly that special clinics would be set up for treatment of transgenders at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai and GRH at a cost of ₹30 lakh. The clinic in RGGGH was inaugurated in June.

The clinic in Madurai, which is being set up on the main campus of GRH on Panagal road, will have a plastic surgeon, endocrinologist and venereologist. Doctors will perform sex reassignment surgeries, said a senior doctor.

The infrastructure being set up at an expense of ₹ 20 lakh has received fund allocation and work is at the final stage. A senior doctor from the hospital administration said that the clinic would have specialists from urology, psychiatry and obstetric and gynaecology departments as well.

“For years, members of the transgender community have had poor access to healthcare and barely treated with dignity and self-respect. The clinic will help spread more awareness among community,” said Government Rajaji Hospital Dean K. Vanitha.

Priya Babu, founder, Transgender Resource Centre, Madurai, said that the presence of such a clinic in Madurai is a progressive step in the medical field in the State.

“Members of the community are often sceptical of doctors as they are unaware of how they are going to be treated. This a big improvement and I welcome this move,” she added.