Compliance guide

AHPRA and Google Reviews for Cosmetic Clinics: A Practical Guide

A patient leaves your clinic thrilled with her results and posts a five-star Google review that says so. You'd like to put that review on your homepage. In Australia, doing that can be an advertising offence.

This guide explains what AHPRA actually restricts, what you're still free to do with reviews, and where the line sits between the two. For anything specific to your clinic, get advice from a lawyer who knows AHPRA advertising rules. This is general information, not legal advice.

The short version: you can ask, you mostly can't display

Asking a patient to leave a review is fine. Nothing in the National Law stops you from inviting patients to share honest feedback anywhere. Using that review once it exists, quoting it, screenshotting it, embedding it on your site, reading it aloud in an ad, is a different question. Section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law bans advertising a regulated health service using testimonials or purported testimonials. It's a strict liability offence, meaning you can breach it even without meaning to, even if the review is completely genuine. Penalties reach $60,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a body corporate, per offence.

What counts as a "testimonial" under AHPRA

A testimonial is any positive statement about the clinical side of someone's care: how well a treatment worked, how skilled the practitioner was, what the results looked like. It doesn't matter what form it takes, a written quote, a star rating tied to a specific treatment, a video, or a Google review you've copied onto your own site all count the same way. A five-star Google review that says "amazing results, couldn't be happier with my lip filler" is genuine and fine sitting on Google. The moment you copy it onto your website or embed it in a widget, you've used it in advertising, and the clinical part is what Section 133 bans.

What you can still show: non-clinical feedback

Comments about parking, how friendly the front desk was, how clean the clinic looked, how easy it was to book, or how short the wait was are not clinical testimonials and can be displayed freely. A review like "Booked online in two minutes, the whole team was lovely" is safe to feature. A review like "My skin looks ten years younger" is not, no matter how happy the patient is.

Where this rule applies

The restriction covers anything your clinic controls: your website, your own social accounts, printed material, and any review widget pulling from your Google Business Profile, even though the review sits on Google itself, where anyone can read it. Once you curate, quote, like, share, or embed it somewhere you control, you've used it in your advertising.

A checklist before anything goes on a channel you control: Does the review mention a treatment or clinical result? Keep it off your site. Does it mention only service, booking, staff, parking, cleanliness, wait times? Generally safe to feature. Are you quoting, embedding, or reading it aloud anywhere you publish content? Treat it as advertising. Is a staff member or influencer being paid or given free treatment for a positive post? As of the 2025 cosmetic-procedure guideline updates, influencer testimonials are banned outright for cosmetic procedures, paid or gifted.

What this means for a review widget on your homepage

If your clinic runs a widget that automatically pulls in every new Google review, it's worth checking what it's actually displaying. A generic widget doesn't know the difference between "loved the results" and "loved the parking." An AHPRA-aware setup filters clinical-content reviews out before they reach your site and only surfaces non-clinical praise.

When to call a lawyer

Get advice before you launch a review widget or testimonial section, repost or screenshot a patient review anywhere your clinic controls, run any paid influencer partnership, or aren't sure whether a glowing review qualifies as clinical content.

The bigger picture

None of this means Australian clinics should stop asking for reviews. Patients can still leave them, prospective patients can still find them on Google, and your star rating still works as a trust signal, you just can't pull the clinical parts into your own advertising.

Running a US practice instead? Read HIPAA-safe med spa review responses, which covers the rules that apply there.

Frequently asked questions

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