Prospective medical students should be required to have health knowledge of LGBTIQ+ patients as a graduate outcome, Australia's doctors' union says, while also calling on jurisdictions lagging on banning gay 'conversion' practices to act.
The Australian Medical Association has released a new position statement calling for an end to discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people in the healthcare system, including patients and health care workers.
The AMA also wants all remaining state and territory governments to ban coercive ‘conversion’ practices, with only Victoria, the ACT and Queensland having legislation in place.
“Conversion practices are a blatant example of the discrimination faced by LGBTQIA+ people in Australia and have no place in our society,” AMA President Omar Khorshid said.
Dr Khorshid called on medical practitioners to affirm Yogyakarta Principle 32 that ‘no-one should be subjected to invasive or irreversible medical procedures that modify sex characteristics without their free, prior and informed consent, unless necessary to avoid serious, urgent and irreparable harm to the concerned person’.
The association says the Australian Medical Council should include LGBTIQ+ health knowledge as a graduate outcome for medical students.
“As doctors it’s important we educate ourselves about how best to serve LGBTQIA+ patients and make our workplaces more inclusive for LGBTQIA+ colleagues working in the medical and health professions,” Dr Khorshid said.
