From 1 July 2024, Victorian health services will be required to collect and report on a patient's 'gender' as well as their 'sex at birth'. Before these changes, hospitals have only collected a patient's 'sex'.
This change is happening because some people have a different sex to what was assigned to them at birth, or a gender that sits outside of the spectrum of male and female.
This change is to ensure that data reflects Victoria's diverse population.
It will also enable us to provide clinically appropriate and inclusive healthcare. Knowing the right details means we can provide the best care possible.
Over time it will build a better evidence base that will help to identify needs and know where we need more support for LGBTIQA+ people.
Collecting sex and gender information can be sensitive for some trans and gender diverse people.
A health service may be the first place a person discloses their gender identity, or one of few places where they disclose their sex assigned at birth.
Additionally, not everyone will understand the difference between their sex and gender and why we need to collect this data.
It is important to approach these conversations sensitively.
When you are collecting this data from patients, it is important not to make assumptions about a person's gender or sex based on how they look, sound, or their name. This can cause distress and may impact the accuracy of the data.
We are currently unable to record preferred pronouns; we are working on this and aim to include this in the next upgrade of our system.
If you'd like to learn more visit: www.health.vic.gov.au/publications/inclusive-collection-and-reporting-of-sex-and-gender-data
Thank you for helping make healthcare services safer, fairer and more inclusive for everyone.
