The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is one of the first Trust’s in the country to train staff in Transgender post-operative care.
Mr Phil Thomas from Nuffield Hospital in Brighton, who is one of a limited number of consultants in the country in the field of gender reassignment surgery, held the first of a number of training sessions here on the Isle of Wight.
The session aimed to assist clinical staff to gain confidence in dealing with patients undergoing surgery and talked specifically about transgender catheterization and dilation, should a transgender patient go into crisis and need medical care on the island.
Mr Steve Parker, Interim Medical Director, welcomed Dr Thomas to St.Mary’s Hospital and said:
“I am proud to say that we are one of the first NHS Trusts in the country to be offered this type of training and awareness to staff and we thank Mr Thomas for making this possible for us. The session was very informative and well supported by staff members from various services across the Trust and we welcome expression of interest from staff members wishing to join future sessions.”
Equalities Lead, Sam Greatrex who organised the training, said:
“It is important that our staff have a clear understanding of what to do if a Transgender person needs longer term medical care after an injury or accident, we need to be able to understand the care needs within the community. We are also starting to move forward work in the field of Transgender Dementia and the implication of dilatation in the terms of patient’s needs.”
