Can allied health clinics use patient testimonials on their website?
Ahpra rules on patient testimonials for physio, OT, podiatry and psychology clinics, and what you can safely put on your clinic website instead.
Mostly no. If your clinic provides a service regulated through Ahpra, such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry or psychology, the National Law does not allow testimonials about the clinical side of care in your advertising, and your website is advertising. Reviews that only talk about non-clinical things, such as customer service or communication style, are not testimonials and can be used.
What counts as a testimonial under Ahpra’s rules?
Ahpra’s advertising guidelines define a testimonial as a recommendation or positive statement about the clinical aspects of a regulated health service, used in advertising. Ahpra gives patient stories, patient experiences and success stories as examples. Purported testimonials, such as fake ones, are banned too.
A comment is clinical when it talks about things like the person’s symptoms, their diagnosis, the treatment they had or the outcome. “My knee pain was gone after three sessions” is a testimonial. “Reception were friendly and always called me back” is not, as long as it says nothing about the care itself.
The ban sits in section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. It applies to any person or business that advertises a regulated health service, not only registered practitioners. That includes a clinic owner who is not a practitioner, and the clinic’s company. Ahpra lists maximum penalties of $60,000 per offence for an individual and $120,000 per offence for a body corporate.
Does this apply to my type of clinic?
16 professions are regulated through Ahpra and the National Boards. The ones most allied health clinics will recognise are occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, chiropractic, osteopathy, optometry and medical radiation practice.
Some allied health professions are not on that list, such as speech pathology, dietetics and exercise physiology. The Ahpra testimonial ban does not apply to those services on their own. But if your clinic also offers a regulated service, for example a physio working alongside an exercise physiologist, your business provides a regulated health service and the rule applies to how you advertise it. The simplest approach for a mixed practice is to treat the whole website as covered.
What can I put on my website instead?
Testimonials were doing a job: helping a nervous client, a parent or a GP decide you are worth contacting. You can do that job with facts. Here is what works well on an allied health website:
Non-clinical reviews, complete and unedited. Ahpra says selectively editing reviews can be false, misleading or deceptive. Only publish whole reviews that say nothing about symptoms, treatment or results.
Practitioner profiles. Name, profession, qualifications, the areas they work in, and a link to their entry on the Ahpra public register. This shows a client exactly who they will see.
What the first appointment involves. How long it takes, what to bring, what happens, and what happens next. This answers the question most new clients are too shy to ask.
Fees, rebates and funding. How payment works, and which funding types you accept. Families and support coordinators often need this before they call.
Wait times and how to book. A plain line about current availability saves a phone call.
A page for referrers. How a GP or support coordinator refers, what you need from them, and how you report back.
None of this needs a patient to say you are good. It shows it.
What about Google reviews and our Facebook page?
Ahpra’s test is who controls the content.
Your own website. If you publish or republish a review there, you are responsible for it. Be careful with review widgets that pull in every Google review automatically, because a clinical review will then appear on a site you control.
Your clinic’s social media. Ahpra says a page used to promote a regulated service, such as a clinic’s Facebook page, is advertising and must not include testimonials. If the platform will not let you remove a review, disabling the reviews function may be how you comply.
Sites you do not control. You do not have to remove, or try to remove, reviews on websites or social media you do not control. Ahpra does warn that engaging with reviews on third party websites may be treated as using a testimonial, so keep replies short and avoid repeating clinical details.
How do I check my current website?
Look in the places testimonials usually hide:
The home page, especially sliders and “what our clients say” sections.
Review widgets and embedded feeds.
Practitioner bio pages.
Old blog posts, case studies and “success stories”.
Videos and image captions.
Search the site for words like “pain”, “recovered”, “back to”, “after treatment” and “results”. Anything that describes a symptom, treatment or outcome in a patient’s words needs to come down or be rewritten as plain facts from the clinic.
If you are not sure whether your reviews section is safe, or you want to replace testimonials with pages that build trust with clients and referrers, send us your website. We are happy to talk it through in a 30 minute chat.
Sources
This article is general information, not legal advice. Check the current rules with the relevant government body before acting.
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