Does Your Clinic Website Break Ahpra's Code of Conduct? A Quick Check

The Ahpra Code of conduct has a short clause on advertising, and it covers your clinic website. It asks that your ads stay true, leave out reviews of treatment and avoid big promises. I read 30 clinic websites in October, and most handled the obvious parts well.

What does the Ahpra Code of conduct say about your website?

Most of the Code is about care. It covers consent, privacy and how you treat patients and colleagues. Advertising gets one short clause, so it's easy to miss.

The shared Code of conduct says advertising "should not be false, misleading or deceptive, use testimonials about clinical aspects of a regulated health service, create an unreasonable expectation of benefit or encourage the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services."

That one sentence holds 4 tests for your website. Your words should be true. Patient reviews shouldn't talk about treatment. You shouldn't promise more than care can give, and you shouldn't push care people don't need.

The next sentence is about offers. If you use a gift or a discount to bring people in, you must state "the offer's terms and conditions in plain language."

The Code also points you back to the law. It says good practice means following the advertising rules in the Ahpra advertising guidelines. So a line that breaks those rules will usually fall short of the Code as well.

What did I see on 30 clinic websites?

In October I read 30 Australian clinic websites, from dental and physio to skin and telehealth clinics. I wanted to see how often the easy lines to spot turned up.

I was pleased by what I found. On the pages I read, 24 of the 30 sites showed no patient testimonial text. Clinics hear about this rule a lot, and these sites had clearly taken it to heart.

Star ratings and review counts were far more common. They showed up on 16 of the 30 sites, often near the top of the homepage.

A star count tells a patient that people liked you. The words beside it are what to watch. A review quote that talks about treatment or results is the kind the Code rules out.

Not every one of these clinics follows this Code, though. Some were GP and psychology clinics, which have codes of their own. The ban on testimonials about clinical care comes from the advertising law, so it applies to them too.

Which website lines does the Code catch?

I've matched each part of the Code to a kind of line you might find on a clinic website. The lines are made-up examples, written to look like ones I often see. Each one comes with a plainer version.

Most of these fixes are small. They usually mean saying what you actually do, in words a patient would use.

The titles row is worth a closer look. The Code asks you not to misrepresent your "qualifications or position." A word like specialist can suggest a kind of registration your team may not hold.

What does the Code say about free offers and discounts?

Offers get their own sentence in the Code. Some clinics use a gift, a discount or another reward to bring patients in. If you do, spell out the terms so anyone can follow them.

A line like Free first visit leaves people guessing. They can't tell if it covers the whole visit or includes treatment. They also can't tell if there's a cost later.

So put the terms right beside the offer. Say what's included, what isn't and when it ends. Terms tucked away at the bottom of the page are easy to miss.

The advertising law has its own rules on gifts and discounts as well. My plain English guide to the Ahpra advertising guidelines covers those.

Do you need to tell patients about products you sell?

You do if you have a financial interest in them. The Code asks you to "declare to patients any professional and financial interest in any product or service you might endorse or sell from your practice".

On a website, this often comes up on product pages. Think of orthotics, skin care or mouthguards sold at the front desk.

The same goes for a business you or your family own, like a pharmacy or an imaging centre. When that interest "could be perceived to influence the care provided, you must inform your patients".

A plain sentence near the product is a simple way to do this. It shows patients you're being open with them.

Can you post patient photos and stories on your website?

You can, but only with written consent. The Code says not to post anyone's information or images, "even if the person is not directly named or identified, without first getting written and informed consent."

That catches more than you might think. A cropped smile or a photo of a knee can fall under it. So can a story with the name changed.

Before and after photos have extra rules under the advertising law. My post on Ahpra before and after photo rules covers them. If you share patient stories, my guide to Ahpra testimonial rules explains what you can publish.

Does the Ahpra Code of conduct apply to your profession?

The shared Code covers 12 professions. They include dentists, physios, chiropractors, podiatrists, optometrists, pharmacists, osteopaths and occupational therapists.

It also covers Chinese medicine practitioners, paramedics and medical radiation practitioners. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners are covered too.

Ahpra's page is clear about who isn't included. It says "The shared Code of conduct does not apply to the following professions" and lists medical, midwifery, nursing and psychology.

Those professions follow their own Board's code. Doctors follow the Medical Board's Good medical practice, and psychologists have had their own code since December 2025.

The advertising law covers every registered profession, though. So the checks in this post are worth doing whichever code you follow.

How can you check your website against the Code?

You can do a first pass in one sitting. Open your homepage, your service pages and your reviews page. Then ask yourself these questions.

• Is every claim true, and could you show the evidence if someone asked?
• Does any review or quote talk about treatment or results?
• Does any line promise an outcome?
• Does every offer have its terms right beside it?
• Does your team page use only titles your team actually holds?
• If you sell products, does the page say you benefit from the sale?
• Do you have written consent for every patient photo and story?

If a question makes you pause, that page is the place to start. My post on why clinic websites get flagged shows the lines that come up most.

You might like a deeper check of the whole site. My All Clear Audit reads every page and checks the words against Ahpra and TGA rules.

The big things on a clinic website are usually handled with care. It's the small lines, written in a hurry years ago, that tend to slip through.

How did I put this together?

How I put this together. I read the shared Code of conduct from June 2022, which Ahpra's page still lists. I quoted it word for word, and I checked who it covers on Ahpra's own page.

The website figures come from 30 Australian clinic websites I read on 16 October 2026. For telehealth, weight and cosmetic clinics, I read the homepage and the main treatment page. For dental and allied clinics, I read the homepage.

• This is a small sample from ordinary searches, and not a random one.
• I counted what the pages showed, and I didn't judge whether any site breaks a rule.
• The example lines in the table are made up, and no clinic is named.
• A page may have changed since I looked.
• This is a guide, not legal advice.

Related reading:

• Ahpra advertising guidelines, in plain English
• Ahpra testimonial rules: what you can publish
• Ahpra before and after photo rules
• Ahpra self-audit checklist for your site
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