SHSRC Kerala have conducted the Workshop for the preparation of the Action Plan for Gender Inclusive Hospital Initiative (QIHI). This action plan prepared through a comprehensive multi-phasic stakeholder-level consultative participatory process by the conjoined efforts of the National Health Mission (NHM) of Kerala and State Health Systems Resource Centre-Kerala (SHSRC-K); aims at providing respectful healthcare including essential and emergency care for Transgender and Gender Diverse (TGD) persons including Intersex patients through the Department of Health Services ensuring equality, equity and minimization of harm whether it be physical, mental, or emotional.

Since underutilization of healthcare services and delay in seeking essential treatment is a major issue observed among TGD people, mainly due to stigma, discrimination, denial of care due to professional ignorance of TGD health issues, in addition to a plethora of other factors; hospitals have a legal and ethical obligation to provide quality care that is safe, affirmative, supportive, and sustainable for the TGD people.

Exercising the rights of TGD people towards accessing healthcare can prevent the risk of precious TGD lives being lost to ill-health or suicides. District-wise groups were formed to discuss their specific problems and the workshop highlighted several gaps like Internal gaps, External gaps and Policy gaps and included separate queues for transgender people, OP tickets with gender options including transgender, provision of lab tests at subsidised rates as provided for patients below the poverty line , identification of appropriate spaces for specialised clinics for transgenders, provision of services demanded by TGD people such as hair removal treatment, training of staff, increasing the number of mental health workers and increasing job opportunities for TGD people.