They faced harassment in other hospitals, exorbitant prices in private institutions… and then RML opened a transgender OPD.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Root is here at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where a new transgender outpatient department has been opened.
00:06This is India's first dedicated OPD for the transgender community, which is open on Fridays from 2pm to 4pm.
00:19There are no long lines here yet.
00:21The patients, they just get a number from the registration desk and then they can go and see the doctors one by one.
00:27Let's go and take a look at what some of the patients have to say and why they choose to come here.
00:57I came here for the whole process, to get my genitals changed, to start my psychiatric treatment.
01:09The transgender patients have a separate registration counter and the staff that treats them have gone through gender sensitivity training.
01:27We also sensitize the ground staff directly involved with these people.
01:38The atmosphere is good, according to other government hospitals. The doctor's behaviour is good.
01:44The medical staff is really good, they are gender sensitized also.
01:47But the ground staff, the guard tells them that yes, they are going to clap.
01:52The OPD is supposed to have all the departments required in any other OPD, but also a few that are usually needed by the trans community.
02:00We have dermatology, medicine, we have surgery, burns and plastic surgery, we have endocrinology as well as psychiatric departments.
02:07Urology, then gynecology also, and then even the pediatrics department.
02:15Although the hospital had put a few systems in place to run the OPD more smoothly, there were still a few chinks that needed to be ironed out.
02:22The patients said that there were times when the endocrinologist wasn't available and the hospital had yet to set up laser therapy for them.
02:30They have no clear protocols at all.
02:32Last week, the psychiatrist was not sitting.
02:36As this thing progresses, as more patients come, their management will also improve to a great extent.
02:42But there are also some unknowledgeable people coming here, we don't even know what to do and where to go.
02:47Despite all this, so far, the patients still preferred coming here.
02:53Transgenders have a lot of problems, they don't have an OPD, no specific hospital has been set up for them.
03:00When I go to other hospitals, I see a discrimination here because there is no specific place for gender.
03:08I will be questioned here, what are you? Are you a male or a female?
03:12If we talk about big hospitals in Delhi, there are 11 big hospitals, but there is no place for transgenders.
03:18And to come here, transgenders are specific, so that we can stay away from stigma and discrimination.
03:23Has this happened to you before?
03:25Yes, it has happened. If I talk about any hospital, with the trans community,
03:29when we go, females push us into males, males push us into females.
03:32Guards talk rudely, that you have a lot of money, what have you come here to do?
03:36Going to other hospitals, talking about hormones,
03:39even the doctors get shocked and their reaction is like, what did we ask?
03:45While the general consensus was that private hospitals were marginally better than their government counterparts,
03:50there was one big problem.
03:52There is a lot of expenditure, a lot of expenditure.
03:55We take HRT, we have a lot of maintenance, so it is not possible for everyone.
04:0211.5 lakh rupees in surgeries only.
04:07And after that, hormones, you are paying out like 3000 rupees per month.
04:12And psychiatric counselling, they have made the business and there are packages of counselling,
04:1835,000 to 90,000.
04:21RML is a central government hospital.
04:24So, most of the treatments offered at the transgender OPD were supposed to be free of cost.
04:29What did the surgeon tell us?
04:30Bring the implants from outside, because they are expensive, the government cannot afford it.
04:35We will do your surgery.
04:38Whatever investigations, blood investigations, etc. that they will need,
04:43we will make it absolutely free for them.
04:46And hormonal treatment also we will provide absolutely free for them.
04:51Other surgical treatment also will be provided free of cost,
04:55except for surgeries which would involve use of implants.
05:00Basically, it's more of a cosmetic part of their treatment.
05:05We buy in private also, but in private we have to pay for the entire surgery.
05:09Here, if we take the implant, there is no problem.
05:12Of the roughly two dozen patients who had visited the OPD today,
05:17most of them were not comfortable showing their face on camera.
05:20And understandably so, because they still face stigma from both their families
05:24and the society around them.
05:26As the government is taking steps for transgenders,
05:30there are talks in the society about these things,
05:33transgenders are also coming forward with their identity,
05:37so we are very happy about it.
05:38I feel completely as a woman and I want to be a woman.
05:42And this is my right and they have to give it to me.