Clinic that caters for the LGBTQI + community officially opens in Illovo #QueerWellnessCentre
ILLOVO – The first-ever clinic hopes to spare the LGBTQ + community the shame, rejection and judgment that is often passed to them when seeking medical attention.
![](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/03/Queer-Wellness-centre.jpg)
The first-ever wellness centre for the LGBTQI + community was officially launched on Tuesday, 10 March.
The private clinic hopes to give the LGBTQI + community a space where they can get all their health needs looked at without having to endure the shame, rejection and judgment that public healthcare workers are alleged to subject the community to.
“Every member of our clinic staff has had LGBTI+ specific cultural humility training, to make sure our clinic setting is welcoming and assuring for all our patients,” read the clinic’s website.
Speaking to the SowetanLive, co-founder and nephrologist Claudia Do Vale said that she used all her life savings to open the clinic, “it’s very much a passion project and just something I believed was needed. It is a fee for service but we are really trying and we are working on a lot of things to make it more integrated, to then become available for people who can’t afford it.”
The clinic has specialists ranging from a plastic surgeon, urologist, endocrinologist, nephrologist, an infectious diseases specialist, and a general practitioner.
The clinic also has a health clinic that focuses on mental health that is headed by a psychiatrist and a psychologist.
All major medical aids are accepted at the centre and standard medical aid charges apply for consultations.
Related article:
https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/144237/sport-queer-twist/
https://www.citizen.co.za/rosebank-killarney-gazette/254844/progress-lgbtiaq-rights-across-world/