The Victoria Pain Specialists pain relief and pain care clinic was founded with a simple aim: Excellence in Personalised Pain Management. The care provided would be holistic, multidisciplinary and complete, utilising cutting-edge pain-intervention technology, and drawing from extensive anaesthetic and pain-specialist experience.

We began at Epworth Hospital with two days per week and one patient at a time. Any spare time was devoted to the development of our world-class medical practice. From the first two patients seen on day one, the clinic grew. About two months after launch, our young practice was approached by a few other pain clinics in Melbourne with the proposal of joining forces. We politely declined their offers; our values did not meet with theirs.

Our approach back then (as it is today) was holistic and multidisciplinary, with a focus on the patient and not just the pain condition. It was clear that the internet had seen patients become increasingly better informed about their conditions and rightly more demanding of their doctors, especially when it came to fast and effective treatment. A multidisciplinary approach was and remains the cornerstone of pain management. Patients would be given the best treatment options available and, more importantly, the time and resources to make their own informed decisions.

We took the approach of 'the right treatment, for each person, at the right time'. To this day, we have treated more than 12,000 people in pain, never forgetting this foundation guideline.

"Treating pain is not like having your appendix removed, where a surgeon takes it out and it’s done. Pain is impossible to see, hard to measure and sometimes hard to treat. It needs expertise on many levels."

From day one it was important to listen to patients. People often come to the practice angry, frustrated, and fed up with their pain, sometimes even sceptical about treatment. Many have lived with pain for way too long, and many have already failed some sort of treatment. The focus was and is still to provide patients with an individualised treatment plan, supported by a multidisciplinary team, and to work closely with the patient to tackle their pain. This offers the patient the very best care available.

For any individualised care, it is absolutely essential that the patient is given the time they require to be heard.

Our principles of patient-centred care continued to foster growth, encompassing both the requirements of a professional clinic and the growing needs of patients. Early on, it was unclear whether the practice would grow. But clearly we were doing something right because the clinic grew quickly and continues to do so to this day. 

Meanwhile the practice was approached by a team of experienced pain specialists with various levels of experience with the aim of growing as pain experts.  They held the same values, ideas and ethics as our founders.