Lesbian and bi women want lesbian / bi-friendly doctors

Please help the Australian Lesbian Medical Association (ALMA) compile a list of doctors recommended by lesbian and bi women.

For more information about this project and how you can help... 

DocLIST

Doctors recommended by lesbian and bisexual women

A project of the Australian Lesbian Medical Association

Lesbian and bi women want good doctors. We want doctors who are caring and competent. We want to be respected by our doctors, and we want to feel that our consultations with a doctor are a place in which we are safe and are not judged. We want our doctors to demonstrate that they are comfortable with our sexual orientation, and have some knowledge of how our sexual orientation impacts on our health issues. We want them to realise that sexual orientation is not just about our sexual behaviour, but about who we love, how we identify, and with whom we socially interact.

Some lesbian and bi women are not open about their sexual orientation with their doctor. Some feel it is not important for their doctor to know what kind of relationships they have or what communities they belong to, while others are not ‘out’ to their doctor because they cannot guarantee a positive response. Some women have found a doctor they can be ‘out’ to, and this can mean they get better health care because they don’t withhold information about the important relationships in their lives.

The Australian Lesbian Medical Association (ALMA) is a network of around one hundred lesbian doctors and medical students from all over Australia. ALMA.is contacted frequently by women wanting recommendations of a lesbian/bi-friendly doctors in their area. In response to this need, a group of ALMA members decided to start the Doctors Recommended by Lesbians and Bi Women project.

We are making a list of doctors recommended by lesbians and bi women all over Australia. Some of these doctors are themselves lesbian or bisexual, while many are heterosexual but are lesbian/bi-friendly. At the top of the list it will clearly state that the doctors on the list are not necessarily lesbian/bi women. It will also state that ALMA does not guarantee the quality of medical service provided by these doctors. Rather, it will state that they have been recommended by lesbian and bi women patients as doctors with whom they feel comfortable being open about matters to do with their sexual orientation.

For a doctor to be included on the list, ALMA will require a recommendation from at least one lesbian / bi woman (see criteria below). Once a recommendation is received, ALMA will write to the doctor informing them about the project (without disclosing the person who recommended them) to ask if they consent to be on the list.

The list will be available online at www.doclist.com.au  The list will be updated and maintained by members of ALMA.

The process for doctors to be put on the list begins with a confidential recommendation by a lesbian/bi woman.  Recommendations should be emailed to the email address below depending on the state/territory of the doctor being recommended:

For Example: Victorian recommendations should be sent to:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please Note: The Doclist Project is being piloted in Victoria and will be rolled out to other states and Territories later in 2010.

The general enquiries email for the project is: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 
If you are recommending a doctor for the list, it will help us if you include:
-    doctor’s name
-    doctor’s area of medicine (GP, gynaecologist, psychiatrist etc)
-    a short blurb on why you recommending the doctor for the list
-    your name (will remain confidential) and contact details, so you may be contacted by phone or email by an ALMA doclist representative if more clarification is necessary

Lesbian and bisexual women (including ALMA members) are encouraged to email their lesbian/bi friends to ask them to consider making a recommendation. In addition, postcards containing information about making a recommendation are being distributed to women at Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) events and distributed to GLBT organisations. We are also promoting the Doclist project in the gay press.

To determine which doctors make it onto the list, we have decided on the following criteria:

-    the doctor is recommended by at least 1 lesbian or bi woman who has consulted them professionally, OR
-    the doctor is a member of  ALMA

What kind of doctors are we looking for?  We expect that doctors on the list will mainly be General Practitioners, but we are also interested in listing specialist doctors such as gynaecologists, obstetricians, and psychiatrists.

Spreading the word about the Doclist amongst the lesbian/bi community is commencing with the distribution of postcards in January 2010. The list of recommended doctors will be small to start with but will grow over time. 

Thank you for your contributions to the Doctors Recommended by Lesbian and Bisexual Women project.  We look forward to hearing from you!