Jacqueline Carey spent most of her 20s bedridden with horrible migraines.
She thought she'd have to give up her dream of working as a nurse.
"I was bedridden for nine years," she said.
"I was [studying] nursing, while being unwell, just part-time, and I never wanted to be in pain and be a nurse because it's just so difficult."
Then, in 2019, Ms Carey was introduced to neurologist Dr Yash Gawarikar and pain medicine specialist Dr Roopa Gawarikar at Calvary Private Hospital in Bruce.
Soon after, they'd "figured it all out", and Ms Carey was able to get into the nursing industry.
"When I saw those two, we found ketamine infusion every eight months, botox every 12 weeks and two different types of medications [worked]," she said.
"That's completely changed my life."
The Gawarikars on Tuesday inaugurated a second private Canberra Region Neurology and Pain Centre to serve southside residents at Woden, after their existing centre at Calvary Hospital.
Their team would continue to see patients through the Calvary centre.
The new Woden centre was "comprehensive and multidisciplinary", so people with neurological and pain issues could go there for initial consultations, investigations, active treatment and rehabilitation.
Dr Yash Gawarikar said the centre was set up to help ease the "huge" burden of chronic pain in Canberra, and avoid people in the ACT having to travel extensively in the territory, and even interstate, for treatment.
"The number of patients with chronic pain conditions is increasing [and], unfortunately, the waiting time in the public system is getting longer and longer," he said.
"Patients, on average, sometimes wait 12 months just for an appointment in the pain clinic.
"What we hope to do is see patients in a timely manner, as soon as they're referred by the general practitioner, and start their treatment journey."
Dr Yash Gawarikar said he had patients who travelled to several different clinics to get different types of treatment for pain, so having everything from infusions to rehabilitation in the one place would benefit them.
He said he saw on average about 60 patients a week, while Dr Roopa Gawarikar saw about 30.
Ms Carey said the new Woden centre offered her great peace of mind, given it meant the neurology and pain team would be constantly there to help.
"When you're over in the hospital, they're in and out, they're in their rooms," she said.
"[At Woden], they'll be there all the time."
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the new centre highlighted the importance of the partnership between the public and private health systems in the territory.
