Inner West Pain Centre - Newtown, NSW

Australian Food And Travel Reviews

I am one of Dr Ho's most regular patients. I have been seeing him for almost 8 years, and I attend hospital regularly for treatment. When my orthopedic surgeon asked me if I'd be willing to see a pain specialist all those years ago, I had no idea what a pain specialist was, but I'm glad that I agreed to see him. During all 4 of my knee surgeries, Dr Ho was visiting me in hospital, sitting down with me and taking his time, even when it was well after 7pm. He has been treating me for arthritic and nerve damage pain. I see some of his other patients regularly and they all agree he's amazing and appreciate him as much as I do.
I haven't had any issues with reception, the booking officer or the nurse. Everyone is very professional and conduct themselves well, even under pressure. I've seen it first hand. His appointments are on schedule at RPA Medical Centre and the longest I've waited has been 15 minutes.
My own personal experience with Dr Ho has been a positive one. Years ago, my first consultation went for well over an hour. Like I said, he takes his time to evaluate your pain concerns and recommend the best possible treatment for you. If that doesn't work, he tries a different treatment, but he doesn't stop trying to help you.

Owen Dai

Dr. Zhao has been a beacon of hope for my father, who was suffering from severe physical pain. His expertise in pain management is truly remarkable, but what sets him apart is his compassionate approach. Dr. Zhao not only provided effective medical treatment but also offered much-needed emotional support. We deeply appreciate his dedication and care. Thank you, Dr. Zhao, for making a significant difference in my father's life.

Fiona Fornasari

The time period from referral was 13 days and that was with me sending the email for the 5th contact today.

My consult was supposed to be with Dr Rajib Dutta but the triage team took it upon themselves to release my medical information to another clinic I had seen 3 years ago.

Apparently this is their process. I did not sign disclosures and did not give permission for this and so I know that my medical and personal info can’t be released without my consent.

The lady I spoke to could not have cared less, if anything she was abrupt and should be in another profession, possibly without patient care or contact.

Try to find someone else or you have a high chance of being disappointed with an unprofessional practice.

Anastasia James

The doctors here are knowledgable and helpful, the problem is being able to communicate with the reception to get an appointment. They cannot be reached efficiently through the formal channels of calling, leaving voicemails or emails. I tried for 3 weeks, calling at different times of the day, without avail, sitting on the phone for up to 50 minutes at a time. When they are reached they thoroughly misunderstand and mistake key details (IE. time since seeing a doctor, relevant referral information, pricing of the appointment, patient history at the clinic). They say conflicting and incorrect information. Despite having a valid repeat referral for a doctor at this practice, and them having all necessary information, they on multiple occasions said I did not have one, despite it all being in a formal email chain. When they finally did offer me an appointment it was via automated text, for 4 months time at a pre-decided time. Which unfortunately was too long of a wait, as I was dealing with immense physical pain. When contacted to see if I could switch to a more available practitioner with an earlier appointment (which they have done in the past for me and others) they refused, bluntly telling me to get another ‘new referral’. When I told them in the past they had done this for me, they ignored me. When I brought up my feedback and criticism of the process of dealing with the reception I was left a passive aggressive voicemail, which was so fundamentally incorrect in their information, I honestly have no idea how they even came to that idea - not to mention this would have easily been corrected if they had read through the relevant emails easily at their disposal. This to me, shows that they are either not fully reading their emails, or they don’t really care to. They also insulated that I had not tried hard enough to contact them, as they are easily contactable which was far from my personal experience. In the same breath they also defensively said they receive 100’s of emails and calls a day, which I find difficult to believe. Ive been to this clinic before, it had never been like this prior. It is clear to me that the reception team is over worked and unable to perform at the necessary output, and are incredibly disorganised (ie. obvious and glaring mistakes, being misinformed on basic information pertaining to clients and practitioners) not to mention, and I hate to say it, but very uncaring in their approach. Despite previous positive experiences with the doctors at this clinic (Trudi Richmond), this most recent process has been so unhelpful and thoroughly depressing, I would rather go to a different pain clinic entirely. I have asked them to not contact me further, as I would prefer not to receive additional voicemails from someone who hasn't shown any care to understand their own missteps and mistakes.

Sarah Levy

Dr Dutta is absolute amazing! He was so empathetic, compassionate, understanding & professional. He has extensive knowledge in this field & many others also so he’s a very intelligent Doctor. The appointment was so thorough, informative, helpful & I left there with so much relief just knowing that finally I will have some relief for my pain to have my life back. I will be forever thankful this amazing Doctor

T D

I have been seeing Dr Trudi Richmond
for nearly two years now. I was very
hesitant at the start due to many let
downs over the years. I can honestly
say she is one of the best doctors I have ever seen. She is very supportive, compassionate and is always looking for solutions to manage my pain. There's no words to express how grateful I am because I can honestly say I don't think I'd be here if it wasn't for her. I would also like to thank the staff especially Alex the receptionist.

Seventy Five Co

I originally posted a great review of Dr Ho and had to update it, as it’s now very misleading… Initially my experience was good, but it all changed after accusations from reception that I hadn’t paid - until Medicare proved I had been actually double charged on several occasions, I had my appointment cancelled several times after waiting in their actual office - I had been sent to buy my own pain injections, which their own chemist said was not usual practice and then he kept it for another patient! Plus multiple errors and unprofessional and abusive confrontations, where my Doctor and even Chemist had to intervene, as they made script errors and refused to send my medical records to my Doctor for weeks. Later I was charged $220 monthly for under 2 min calls that I waited hours for and then being hung up on before I could speak. Making me miss days of scripts to the point the chemist had to call them for emergency scripts as they “forgot” to send them every month.

I was sick from being gaslighted and put my phone on speaker when my Ex came to visit and he was appalled and wanted me to take it further - so I called their so called complaints line and the women abused me for complaining - which took me two years to get the courage to do, so clearly it not in my nature to confront people and the Pain Clinic took advantage of that. Straight after I tried to complain, they sent me information for pills to get junkies off meds. I took it to my Chemist and he told me they’ve had multiple complaints about the clinic (as we’re local) and told me to take it to my Doctor ASAP - as they were worried about how they were treating me. My Doctor was not impressed at all and told me to stop going there immediately. That’s when they refused to give her my records - so I sent my Doctor my email exchanges from the pain clinic proving the double charges and last minute canceled appointments leaving me without necessary meds - so their local clinic is aware of their practises (and how they communicate with their patients - which is unprofessional at best)!

I have pelvic, spine and shoulder inquires after a major car accident where I was cut out of a car with the jaws of life. So my injuries are severe and I have been in treatment for close to 30 years, including spine operations and regular GP and Chiro appointments etc, which help me function with my limited abilities. However, the Inner West Pain Clinic almost put me over the edge and want to end it all and I ended up in therapy trying to deal with their abuse. I was so gaslit, I felt I couldn’t leave, as I told them about wanting to see a Doctor at the Northern Sydney pain clinic for a newer treatment and they questioned me at length, insinuating that I wasted THEIR time - tho they only gave me meds and NEVER offered longer term solutions.

But once I was told I had to leave by my Doctor, Chiro and Chemist and everyone around me, I felt like myself again after years of having major anxiety the day before and by the end, having had severe panic attacks waiting for the appointment, as I didn’t know if they’d call early, hours later or if I had to call repeatedly to remind them - knowing they regularly said I didn’t have an appointment.

The thing is that I worked as a Webmaster in the corporate world, so I recorded everything in writing - so I have years of proof of their medical errors and their unethical behaviour.

Ps I witnessed elderly, barely mobile patients being sent home, as they were rudely told they didn’t have an appointment and then question why they were there! They didn’t even try to fit them in, even tho it was obviously the clinics’ error AND the poor old dude was struggling with pain and had to arrange for a helper to bring him in - yet they felt the need to mock him for even being there. Everything about this place is toxic and that experience was just horrible and something I can never forget!

Vesna Tomovska

My experience with Dr Tim Ho has been a very positive one. He is a very professional caring Pain Specialist, he has been very understanding and very helpful to my situation, I highly recommend him, also the receptionists are wonderful and extremely helpful ladies, thank you!