Senior Lecturer and Rutherford Discovery Fellow, Transgender Health Research Lab, School of Psychology, University of Waikato, Kirikiriroa Hamilton.
Clinical Psychologist, Endocrine Department, Te Whatu Ora, Te-Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.
N Z Med J. 2023 Apr 28;136(1574):24-31. doi: 10.26635/6965.6058.
The Aotearoa New Zealand healthcare system does not adequately meet the needs of transgender people. Due to healthcare reforms and increases in funding and awareness of transgender health, the Ministry of Health has met with the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) to discuss ways to improve the healthcare system. We developed a vision for a transgender healthcare document to enable a process for our members to collaborate and to increase transparency about what advice PATHA has provided to the Ministry.
Feedback from PATHA's committees was incorporated into a draft document, which was then sent to all PATHA members for further feedback and collaboration.
PATHA proposes improvements to transgender healthcare that are centred around a new transgender health resourcing hub, which should operate according to a Te Tiriti o Waitangi framework, provide national coordination of a distributed model of care, provide resourcing (including education) for primary care and actively work to increase provision and equity of gender-affirming surgeries. In order to be effective, the new resourcing hub would utilise peer health navigators, provide education and professional development, promote healing-focussed care and incorporate transgender community leadership and accountability.
These improvements would allow for the best practices from existing regional programmes to be implemented throughout the healthcare system. The proposed changes align with the goals of the healthcare reforms to make healthcare for transgender people more equitable, accessible and cohesive.
新西兰的医疗保健系统不能充分满足跨性别者的需求。由于医疗保健改革以及对跨性别健康的资金和认识增加，卫生部与新西兰跨性别健康专业协会（PATHA）会面，讨论改善医疗保健系统的方法。我们制定了一份跨性别保健文件的愿景，以使我们的成员能够合作，并提高关于 PATHA 向卫生部提供的建议的透明度。
PATHA 委员会的反馈意见被纳入一份草案文件，然后将其发送给所有 PATHA 成员，以征求进一步的反馈意见和合作。
PATHA 提出了以新的跨性别健康资源中心为中心的改善跨性别保健的建议，该中心应根据《怀唐伊条约》框架运作，为分散式护理模式提供国家协调，为初级保健提供资源（包括教育），并积极努力增加性别肯定手术的提供和公平性。为了有效，新的资源中心将利用同行健康导航员，提供教育和专业发展，促进以疗愈为重点的护理，并纳入跨性别社区的领导和问责制。
这些改进将允许在整个医疗保健系统中实施现有区域计划的最佳实践。拟议的变革符合医疗保健改革的目标，以使跨性别者的医疗保健更加公平、可及和协调。
