Ahpra advertising guidelines: testimonials

Advertising must not use testimonials or purported testimonials, such as patient stories, success stories or fake testimonials. A testimonial is a positive statement about the clinical aspects of a service, meaning a symptom, a diagnosis or treatment, or an outcome or practitioner skill. Comments about customer service or communication style that do not touch a clinical aspect are not testimonials.

• Review of website, social media and print for patient stories, ratings with clinical comments and quotes
• Staff instruction on what counts as a clinical aspect

• Patient quote about pain relief reposted on the clinic's page
• Clinical review comments left visible on a business page

No person (practitioner, business or anyone else) advertises a regulated health service, or a business providing one, in a way that: is false, misleading or deceptive or likely to be; offers a gift, discount or other inducement without stating its terms and conditions; uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business; creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment; or directly or indirectly encourages indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services. A regulated health service is one provided, or usually provided, by a health practitioner. Publishers and printers acting for another are not liable merely for publishing. Courts may have regard to the National Boards' advertising guidelines. Maximum penalty $60,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a body corporate (raised by the 2022 amendments).

The advertiser, meaning whoever controls the site or review function, is responsible for testimonials in advertising: the clinic for its own website and business social media (reviews may need to be switched off where they cannot be edited), and the platform owner for third-party booking or review sites the clinic does not control. Patients remain free to post reviews on independent platforms and an advertiser need not chase removal of them, but engaging with reviews on a third-party site can itself use a testimonial.