- People who need health services the most are often driven away from clinics and hospitals because doctors and nurses refuse to help them or make them feel uncomfortable.
- Researchers from Ritshidze found that people with a higher chance of getting HIV frequently don't get helped at government health facilities.
- Their report asked men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, injecting drug users and prisoners about the services they got at state clinics and hospitals.
In this episode of Bhekisisa's monthly television show Health Beat, researchers speak to two transgender women about their experiences. They ask a Ritshidze researcher why people feel unwelcome, and Mia Malan takes the health department to task about the attitudes of health workers.
When health workers discriminate against people with a higher chance of getting HIV, the virus spreads like wildfire because such groups become less likely to use health facilities.
Bhekisisa's Health Beat team asked transgender people about the service they get at government clinics and the health department about what happens to a doctor or nurse who refuses to help patients.
This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.