Mumbai: The country’s first transgender ward has been opened at the state-run Gokuldas Tejpal (GT) Hospital located near Crawford Market, Mumbai. Doctors have long observed that the community finds it awkward to be admitted to a male ward. Patients who were female showed resistance, as well.
Consequently, it was always considered that a special unit for transgender patients was necessary. We chose to launch the specialised unit at GT Hospital due to the space crunch at JJ Hospital and St. George being earmarked for Covid.
The ward’s opening speaker, Maharashtra’s Minister of Medical Education, Girish Mahajan, noted that choosing which ward to admit patients to was a constant problem. He said, “There were several complaints. We decided to have a special ward with an O2 ventilator facility.”
Hospital wards like this should exist in other regions of the nation, according to Zainab Patel, a member of the national board for transgender people in the western zone. She said, “In India, there are more than five lakh TG population and around 70,000 in Mumbai. We need more of Transgender ward in hospitals across the country because our community is also ageing and has health issues related to noncommunicable diseases.”
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