Hamilton Trans Health Coalition calling on primary care providers to share gender-affirming care insights
Hamilton Trans Health Coalition is asking health-care providers to fill out a survey to help the group better understand barriers to care for people who are trans - and how to overcome them.
The survey specifically asks primary health-care providers to shed light on their experiences providing gender-affirming care - such as offering hormone replacement therapy or using the patient's correct pronouns. The hope is that responses will give the coalition insight into how they can better assist professionals in offering care to their trans patients.
We believe - and we know - that actually, this is within the scope of family practitioners," said Cole Gately, chair of the Hamilton Trans Health Coalition, of providers offering gender-affirming care. It's just that it's not very familiar to some family doctors so they think that it's not within their scope or their practice or their education. But it totally is."
Gately said he has heard of physicians who ask patients who are trans to find their own specialist doctors, and from there, the physician will make a referral.
He doesn't think doctors are intentionally neglecting patients - some just might lack the tools to provide proper care.
We do need doctors to understand that they can do this," he said. They really should be doing the care themselves."
And that's the goal of the survey: find the barriers to care and offer tools to overcome them.
Gately said despite the survey being circulated for a month, uptake has so far been low. As of Friday, no doctors had yet responded. But he hopes as word gets out, more responses will pour in.
The survey will remain open until July 28. It is open to primary care providers including primary care physicians, such as family doctors, registered nurses in primary care practices, nurse practitioners in primary care practices and physician assistants in primary care practices.
A link to the survey can be found at Hamilton Trans Health Coalition's Twitter page @hamtranshealth.
Katrina Clarke is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: katrinaclarke@thespec.com