A protected title expires in October

Why podiatry is different

The specialist title is real here

Ahpra says the 2023 restriction on the medical title surgeon does not change the rules for protected titles in the dental and podiatry professions. So the generic advice to strip every title off the page is wrong for podiatry.

Who may actually use it

40 out of 6,038

• 40 podiatrists hold specialist registration
• That is 0.7 per cent of the profession
• Ahpra notes they draw a higher rate of complaints than similar professions
• That fact is what triggered the review

Why the title changed

Confusion, not clinical standards

Professor Ron Paterson found the issue was clarity for the consumer about the type of practitioner they are seeing, and the type of training that practitioner has completed.

How literally Ahpra reads this

Every surface, not just the website

When the medical title surgeon was restricted, Ahpra said all references must be removed from websites, social media, letterheads, business cards and clinic windows. Assume the same list applies.

The claims that get flagged

Outcome promises and pushed treatment

• Permanent relief. An outcome promise
• Cure. Outcomes are not uniform
• Free scan this month. An inducement with no terms
• Everyone over 50 should book. Encourages indiscriminate use
• Australia's leading clinic. Unverifiable comparison

The review widget trap

Clinical aspects are the test

Ahpra defines a testimonial as a positive statement about the clinical aspects of a service. A feed that pulls every Google review onto your site publishes the clinical ones too, and you authorised the feed.

The short version

Diary the week before 5 October

This is the rare compliance deadline that is easy to meet and embarrassing to miss. It is published, it is dated, and it applies to a page you already own.

Tap below for the full checklist.