The Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve (CHUA) will create, by the end of the year, a Gender Identity and Diversity Consultation, aimed at transsexuals.
The announcement was made earlier this month by António Lacerda Sales, Assistant Secretary of State and Health, on a visit to CHUA.
This will be a «transdisciplinary» consultation and will bring to the Algarve a consultation «of great complexity».
“Implementation takes some time because it requires good training and many disciplines and specialties, but we want it to be up and running by the end of this year,” said the minister.
According to António Lacerda Sales, CHUA already has «the human resources»: about a dozen doctors, but also technicians and psychologists, since it is a multidisciplinary consultation.
The referral will be made via “family doctor, giving access to all Portuguese citizens who wish to do so”.
Speaking to journalists, Ana Varges Gomes, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve, explained that the team will monitor “the entire process” of gender change.
“It is a long process: it is not from today to tomorrow. It usually takes about two years for the surgical transformation of the gender part”, he exemplified.
This will be the third center of this type to be created in Portugal, after the ones that already exist in Coimbra and Hospital Santo António, in Porto.
For Ana Varges Gomes, the idea is that all centers, including the one in the Algarve, can help each other and «discuss the cases».
“Joining the efforts of all units will only help. It is with great joy that we announce this team that will support the entire southern region and give our patients the possibility to do so here, without having to travel», concluded the head of CHUA.
Comments