Our report details neurodivergent people’s experiences of outpatient appointments in Surrey hospitals.

25/09/2024
By
Involvement of people

Our aim has been to encourage people with neurodivergent people to share their feedback about their experiences using acute NHS Hospital Trusts in Surrey

We listened to what people shared with us about their outpatient experience. We heard good experiences when adjustments were made. We also heard that some people had less positive experiences with common themes of communication, attitude of staff, accessibility of information and the difficulties experienced with the physical environment.

Our recommendations were based on the key findings and are categorised into the following themes:

  • Environment
  • Information
  • Communication
  • Waiting Time
  • Length of appointment
  • Training and awareness of neurodiversity

A short summary of the responses we received from 3 of the 5 hospitals we sent the report to are also included on this page.

Please do contact us if you would like any further information.


Neurodivergent people's experiences of outpatients in Surrey hospitals - August 2024 (pdf) Download File (pdf 1.04 MB)
Neurodivergent people's experiences of outpatients in Surrey hospitals - August 2024 (word) Download File (vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document 1.79 MB)
Summary of responses (pdf) Download File (pdf 112.37 KB)

“I do not have a diagnosis, and I have found that requests for adjustments do not tend to get taken seriously unless you have a diagnosis. If you have a diagnosis, then it is a formal reasonable adjustment, and they legally must try to accommodate it - without a diagnosis you do not have this protection. This makes it very difficult for people who do not meet the threshold for a diagnosis but have neurodiverse traits, people who are stuck on the waiting list for a diagnosis, or people who just do not want to receive a diagnostic label for personal reasons.”