The questions people actually ask.

Yes. A referral from your GP or another specialist is required, and it is also what makes any rebate or insurance claim possible. If you are unsure whether your case fits, call us before asking your GP to write it.

Referrals are triaged on receipt and an appointment offer normally follows within one to two business days. The clinic date itself depends on urgency and clinic availability — ask for the current wait when you call.

Ask your GP to mark the referral urgent and to call the referrer line. Genuinely urgent cases are moved forward. Sudden severe pain with new weakness, numbness or loss of bladder control is an emergency — go to your nearest emergency department rather than waiting for us.

Yes, for review appointments, medication discussions and results. First appointments are in person where an examination would change the plan.

Give as much notice as you can so the slot can go to somebody else. Notice periods and any cancellation charge are set out on the fees page.

Consultation and procedure ranges are published on the fees page, and you receive a written estimate for your specific plan before anything is booked. You will not be asked to consent to a cost you have not seen.

Most insurers cover specialist pain consultations and common procedures, subject to your policy and excess. We provide the procedure codes you need to obtain authorisation before your appointment.

Yes. Self-funding patients are quoted the same published range, in writing, with the consultation and any procedure itemised separately.

The estimate states what is included and what is billed separately — imaging, sedation and hospital or facility charges are itemised rather than absorbed, so there is no surprise line afterwards.

Not usually. The first appointment is assessment and explanation. A procedure is offered only when a specific pain source has been identified and the procedure would answer a question or treat that source.

Local anaesthetic is used for all of them, and sedation is offered where it makes sense. Most people describe pressure rather than sharp pain. Each procedure page sets out what to expect on the day.

No. Sedation makes you drowsy and comfortable while you keep breathing on your own — for some procedures we need you awake enough to tell us what you feel, which is part of what makes them accurate.

There is no set course. A diagnostic block answers a question; a therapeutic injection is repeated only if the first one clearly helped. Repeating an injection that did nothing is not treatment.

That is information, not failure — it usually means the pain is coming from somewhere else, and it redirects the plan. This is discussed before you consent, not afterwards.

Sometimes, but strength is rarely the answer in persistent pain. Nerve pain often responds to medication that is not a painkiller at all, and the aim is always the smallest effective dose.

Yes, and this is common. Reduction is planned slowly, in agreement with you and your GP, with support in place for the difficult weeks rather than a target date imposed on you.

Your GP, working from our written plan. We provide the plan, the doses and the review points; continuity of prescribing stays where your full record lives.

Never stop them on your own. Tell us what you take and we will confirm with your GP or cardiologist whether they need holding, for how long, and when to restart.

It depends on the procedure. Local anaesthetic can give relief within the hour that then wears off; steroid effect builds over days; ablation relief typically builds over two to six weeks. Each procedure page states its own timeline.

Most people return to desk work the next day. You cannot drive on the day of sedation. Physical work may need a few days — ask at your appointment so it can be planned around.

Because a procedure buys a window of lower pain, and what you do in that window decides whether the benefit lasts. Injection plus rehabilitation consistently outlasts injection alone.

A simple pain diary — a score out of ten, morning and evening, plus what you managed to do. It turns a vague 'a bit better' into something we can act on.