An exclusive medical clinic for the transgender community, reportedly the first of its kind in the public sector hospitals in India, was opened at the Kottayam Government Medical college hospital on Tuesday.
The Out Patient (OP) clinic will function once every month in the beginning. An initiative of the Legal Service Authority, the clinic was formally inaugurated by district and sessions judge Santhakumari. The facility will function from the department of Plastic Surgey for the time being, authorities said.
According Dr Lakshmi Jayakumar, Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery, the hospital was approached by people who needed medical help. However, the needs of the transgender community could be addressed only through a team approach, she said.
The TG community members who were consulting doctors from the general OPs had their constrains. It was such a realisation that led to the establishment of the exclusive clinic for them. The clinic would provide the services of specialists in psychiatry, endocrinology, dermatology, plastic surgery, gynaecology and urology to the patients, Dr Lakshmi Jayakumar said.
Dr Sue Ann Zacharia, assistant professor, Medicine is the nodal officer for the facility.
