Dr David Jones

''Recognition is the first step in legitimisation. There's still other specialists around who say: `Oh, there's no need for that, we look after pain ourselves'.''

Resources for chronic pain - Dr Jones prefers the term persistent - are limited, doctors lack knowledge, and patients often get wrong or contradictory advice.

Awareness of chronic pain had been emerging on the radar of health administrators as the indirect costs of pain were being recognised.

It was a ''long road'' to acceptance by the Medical Council.

''They put us through a fairly tight hoop. There's not been any mateship, I can tell you.

''However, they have a role to protect the public, so they were especially interested that we had adequate processes to ensure maintenance of professional standards for our fellows, an area in which we can all lift our game.''

He hoped recognition was another step on the way to increasing resources for pain medicine.

A key task was educating doctors, both those in practice and those in training.

Pain medicine was given ''one afternoon'' in fifth-year clinical medicine and, for some, a little bit of on-the-job work with anaesthetists.

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Recognition validates pain medicine