AHPRA / DBA Advertising Guidelines now released
Our 5 July posting regarding the release of Codes and Guidelines by the Dental Board of Australia mentioned that the Advertising Guidelines were not yet published, however this has now occurred.
These 10 page guidelines apply across all registered health professions, and set stringent controls over what can and can't be done in the advertising of regulated health services. All members are urged to review their advertising arrangements and websites in the light of the following extract, and to immediately remove any contents which may offend these new guidelines.
"To comply with s. 133 of the National Law and these guidelines, advertising of services must not:
(a) create or be likely to create unwarranted and unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of the health services advertised
(b) encourage (directly or indirectly) inappropriate, indiscriminate, unnecessary or excessive use of health services; for example, references to a person improving their physical appearance and the use of phrases such as ‘don’t delay’, ‘achieve the look you want’ and ‘looking better and feeling more confident’ have the potential to create unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of certain services and encourage unnecessary use of such services
(c) mislead, either directly, or by implication, use of emphasis, comparison, contrast or omission
(d) use testimonials or purported testimonials
(e) compare different regulated health professions where there is no evidence on which to base the comparison and/or in a way that may mislead or deceive
(f) claim that the services provided by a particular regulated health profession are better, as safe as or safer than others
(g) refer to the recovery time following provision of a regulated health service that may lead to unrealistic expectations
(h) lead to, or be likely to lead to, inappropriate selfdiagnosis or self-treatment
(i) abuse the trust or exploit a lack of knowledge by patients or clients
(j) fail to disclose that there are health risks associated with a treatment
(k) omit the necessary warning statement (see Section 6.2, ‘Use of warning statements for surgical or invasive procedures’)
(l) contain language that could cause undue fear or distress
(m) contain any information or material that is likely to make a person believe his or her health or wellbeing may suffer from not taking or undertaking the health service
(n) contain price information that is inexact, or fails to specify any conditions or variables to an advertised price (see Section 6.5, ‘Advertising of price information’), or offers time-limited discounts or inducements
(o) contain any claim, statement or implication that
• either expressly, or by omission, that the treatment is infallible, unfailing, magical, miraculous or a certain, guaranteed or sure cure
• a practitioner has an exclusive or unique skill or remedy, or that a product is ‘exclusive’ or contains a ‘secret ingredient’
• a practitioner provides superior services to those provided by other registered health practitioners
• the results of the health service offered are always effective
• the services can be a substitute for public health vaccination or immunisation
(p) purport to inform the public fully of the risks of undertaking a health procedure or to replace the process of informed consent
(q) provide a patient or client with an unsolicited appointment time that has not been requested by the patient or client
(r) promote tobacco products, smoking, alcohol, or any other addictive substances or products that are known to affect health adversely
(s) be vulgar, sensational, contrary to accepted standards of propriety or likely to bring a health profession into disrepute, for example, because the advertising is sexist.
These 10 page guidelines apply across all registered health professions, and set stringent controls over what can and can't be done in the advertising of regulated health services. All members are urged to review their advertising arrangements and websites in the light of the following extract, and to immediately remove any contents which may offend these new guidelines.
"To comply with s. 133 of the National Law and these guidelines, advertising of services must not:
(a) create or be likely to create unwarranted and unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of the health services advertised
(b) encourage (directly or indirectly) inappropriate, indiscriminate, unnecessary or excessive use of health services; for example, references to a person improving their physical appearance and the use of phrases such as ‘don’t delay’, ‘achieve the look you want’ and ‘looking better and feeling more confident’ have the potential to create unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of certain services and encourage unnecessary use of such services
(c) mislead, either directly, or by implication, use of emphasis, comparison, contrast or omission
(d) use testimonials or purported testimonials
(e) compare different regulated health professions where there is no evidence on which to base the comparison and/or in a way that may mislead or deceive
(f) claim that the services provided by a particular regulated health profession are better, as safe as or safer than others
(g) refer to the recovery time following provision of a regulated health service that may lead to unrealistic expectations
(h) lead to, or be likely to lead to, inappropriate selfdiagnosis or self-treatment
(i) abuse the trust or exploit a lack of knowledge by patients or clients
(j) fail to disclose that there are health risks associated with a treatment
(k) omit the necessary warning statement (see Section 6.2, ‘Use of warning statements for surgical or invasive procedures’)
(l) contain language that could cause undue fear or distress
(m) contain any information or material that is likely to make a person believe his or her health or wellbeing may suffer from not taking or undertaking the health service
(n) contain price information that is inexact, or fails to specify any conditions or variables to an advertised price (see Section 6.5, ‘Advertising of price information’), or offers time-limited discounts or inducements
(o) contain any claim, statement or implication that
• either expressly, or by omission, that the treatment is infallible, unfailing, magical, miraculous or a certain, guaranteed or sure cure
• a practitioner has an exclusive or unique skill or remedy, or that a product is ‘exclusive’ or contains a ‘secret ingredient’
• a practitioner provides superior services to those provided by other registered health practitioners
• the results of the health service offered are always effective
• the services can be a substitute for public health vaccination or immunisation
(p) purport to inform the public fully of the risks of undertaking a health procedure or to replace the process of informed consent
(q) provide a patient or client with an unsolicited appointment time that has not been requested by the patient or client
(r) promote tobacco products, smoking, alcohol, or any other addictive substances or products that are known to affect health adversely
(s) be vulgar, sensational, contrary to accepted standards of propriety or likely to bring a health profession into disrepute, for example, because the advertising is sexist.
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