Private healthcare sells itself on service: shorter waits, more time with clinicians and a better experience. For neurodivergent patients, that promise often falls short. Bright, busy waiting rooms, rushed consultations and staff who misread different communication styles can turn a routine appointment into an ordeal. Neurodiversity training for healthcare staff is one of the most direct ways to close that gap.
This article looks at the barriers neurodivergent patients meet, what good training changes, and what private providers are already doing.
Why neurodiversity training in healthcare matters
Around 1 in 7 people in the UK are neurodivergent, according to Acas, and many adults have never been formally diagnosed. That includes autistic people, people with ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, and others whose brains work differently. Every private clinic and hospital is already seeing these patients, whether or not anyone has noticed.
There is also a legal dimension. Since the Health and Care Act 2022, all providers registered with the Care Quality Commission must make sure their staff receive training on learning disability and autism, known as the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training. A statutory code of practice strengthened that duty in September 2025, as Care England explains. Private hospitals and clinics registered with the CQC are covered. The Equality Act 2010 also requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.
The barriers neurodivergent patients meet
Sensory environments
Clinical spaces are often loud, bright and unpredictable. Strong smells, beeping equipment and crowded waiting areas can be overwhelming for people with sensory differences. A patient who arrives already overloaded will find it much harder to explain what is wrong.
Communication differences
Neurodivergent patients may communicate, describe pain or show distress differently. An autistic patient might avoid eye contact or need time to process a question. Someone with ADHD may find a long, unstructured consultation hard to follow. Untrained staff can misread these differences as rudeness, disinterest or exaggeration, and important information gets lost.
Rigid processes
Short appointment slots, last minute changes, long waits and a different clinician every visit all add stress. Simple adjustments, such as a quiet place to wait, a longer appointment or a supporter in the room, are often available only if the patient knows to ask and feels able to.
Past experiences
Many neurodivergent adults have had poor experiences of healthcare and avoid appointments as a result. That is a barrier created by services, and it means conditions are picked up later than they should be.
What good training changes
Effective training is practical. It helps reception teams, nurses, consultants and security staff understand how neurodivergent people experience healthcare and what they can do differently tomorrow.
Calmer visits
Staff learn to reduce sensory triggers: dimming lights, offering a quieter room, explaining what will happen before it happens and keeping waits short where possible.
Clearer communication
Training covers using plain, concrete language, giving people time to answer, offering written information and speaking to the patient directly rather than only to a parent or carer. Our neuroinclusive communication workshop focuses on exactly these skills.
Adjustments that stick
The best providers record a patient’s communication and sensory needs so they don’t have to explain them at every visit. Boston Medical Center in the US does this through an Autism Support Checklist that is added to the patient’s medical record. When it began its Autism Friendly Initiative, an early survey found that half of staff were not fully comfortable examining autistic patients and 71 per cent wanted more training, according to BMC’s HealthCity.
Safer care
When clinicians understand neurodivergence, they are less likely to misread behaviour, overlook a physical health problem or assume consent has been understood when it hasn’t. That matters for patient safety and for the provider’s risk profile.
What private providers are already doing
In February 2025 Spire Leeds Hospital received Autism Accreditation from the National Autistic Society. According to Spire Healthcare, the hospital put processes in place so that all staff complete autism training, and departmental neurodiversity champions make reasonable adjustments such as extra appointment time, sensory boxes and a quiet room when needed. Several other Spire hospitals have also received autism accreditations.
The lesson is that accreditation follows from ordinary, consistent practice: everyone trained, someone responsible in each department, and adjustments offered as a matter of course. Our neurodiversity champions training helps organisations build that kind of network.
The business case for private providers
Private healthcare competes on experience. Patients and families who find a provider that understands them tend to come back and recommend it to others. Being known as genuinely neuroinclusive is a real point of difference.
There are internal benefits too. Staff who feel confident supporting neurodivergent patients find difficult situations less stressful. And a meaningful share of your own workforce will be neurodivergent. Training that improves patient care also improves how colleagues understand each other, which supports retention. Our page on neurodiversity in the workplace covers the staff side in more detail.
Getting started
You don’t need to change everything at once. A sensible order is:
- check that mandatory training is complete and up to date across clinical and non clinical teams
- ask neurodivergent patients and staff what gets in their way, and act on what you hear
- make adjustments easy to request at booking, not just on the day
- name a lead or champion in each department
For a view of how the NHS is approaching the same challenge, read our article on neurodiversity training in the NHS. You may also find why autism is considered a spectrum useful background for teams new to the subject.
How Enna can help healthcare providers
Enna’s training can be tailored to healthcare teams, from reception staff to consultants. Neurodiversity 101 gives every member of staff a shared foundation, and the neurodiversity deep dive goes further for clinical leads and patient experience teams.
To see how your organisation compares, start with our neuroinclusion maturity assessment, or ask about a neuroinclusion audit of your people policies and practices. Book a call with our team to plan your next step.
