Google reviews and AHPRA: what clinics can and can't do

AHPRA's position distinguishes between reviews on a platform you don't control and testimonials you use in advertising. A patient posting a five-star review about their treatment on Google is not your breach. Screenshotting that review to Instagram, embedding a review widget on your homepage, or reading it out in a reel — that's you advertising with a testimonial, and if it references clinical care it's prohibited. The full testimonial rules are here.

Ask for feedback about the experience, not the outcome: booking, communication, how the team looked after them, the clinic itself. Don't coach outcome language ('tell people how much your pain improved'), and don't offer anything in return — a discount for a review is both an inducement problem and misleading-conduct territory.

Avoid review gating too: funnelling only happy patients to Google while diverting unhappy ones to a private form misrepresents your rating and creates consumer-law risk on top of the AHPRA issues.

You are not required to hunt down and remove third-party reviews you don't control — the obligation is not to use or encourage them. Don't feature them, boost them, or reply in ways that amplify the clinical claims.

When replying, keep it generic and warm: thank them, no clinical detail, and never confirm someone was a patient or discuss their care — that's a privacy problem stacked on the advertising one. 'Thanks for the kind words about our team' is a complete reply.

Embedding a live review feed on your website is using those reviews in advertising — if the feed contains clinical testimonials, so does your site. Either curate to genuinely non-clinical feedback or skip the widget. Aggregate claims like 'rated 4.9 on Google' are lower-risk than quoting reviews, but the number must be accurate and current.