"Care for my teenager with scoliosis"

My teenage daughter recently had to use the Scottish National Spine Deformity Service at the new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People within NHS Lothian.

The care provided was excellent, but I would encourage you to consider changing the name of this service. The language "deformity" is not sensitive or person-centred. It is particularly unhelpful when a number of the patients are teenage girls who can often struggle with self-esteem and body image, even without the additional issues of having spinal problems including scoliosis. Nobody should be labelled as deformed.

To improve communication and prepare patients, it would also be helpful if on being contacted for an appointment, parents and young people were given information about what to expect. We were unaware that my daughter would have an x-ray, which increased her anxiety and this could have been addressed if we had known in advance to expect this.

These are very simple things which could be done to make an excellent service even better.