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Could someone please shed some light upon this matter. According to national law and AHPRA only podiatric sugeons, dental specialists and medical specialists can use the title 'specialist' in advertising and promotion yet I see many physios and psychologists still proclaiming to be specialists? what is the point of national law if it is not going to be enforced. eg

http://www.psychxchange.com.au/JobDetail.aspx?JobID=10564

http://specialistphysio.net.au/sspc/?page_id=4

 

Was going to write a post in my blog about this and other points of advertising...wrote the draft then thought I would be just :bash:

I feel some of the advertising restrictions are over regulation at its best...all because we don't do that because we are professionals. The market is not stupid and the old gaurd should not be the benefactors...just because they have been there longer.

You are right though if the rules are not going to be policed then it really is the Wild West...with the law breakers benefiting. Give me less regulation and let the market decide...lawful podiatrists will then benefit from clever, direct responce marketing.

There are always going to be rule breakers...so have less rules. Let the patient decide if they want to go to a guy with a cheesy ad or not...let the podiatrist decide what ads they are willing to run...you only retain the patient if you give good service.:deadhorse:

 

None of the AHPRA Boards will monitor all of the advertising, but will react to complaints. If you feel an ad contravenes the national law or an individual board advertising guidelines you can make a complaint to the relevant board and it will be investigated.

 

Use the term "Area of Special Interest" or something similar in your advertising.

Regarding the policing of ads.

I complained to both the dental board and the podiatry board about advertising in one of the discount shopper newspapers, to AHPRA. Both were for practitioners in adjacent suburbs so they did not concern our practice. I did it to test what APHRA would do. The answer is nothing!

One advertisement was in regard to predatory pricing, a significant discount (below cost) and an expiry date. The other was about discounting and an expiry date.
Both are not permitted under APHRA codes of conduct.

The dental one did not even result in a "Thank you for your letter" I did get a response from the podiatry one ( took a while) stating that it would be investigated. I do not know of any outcome. I think this goes back to Sept 2011

My son and his wife are both dentists hence the dental complaint, as the practice concerned is in direct competition with a practice that they both had previously worked in.

 

Bad form that the Dental Board didn't acknowledge your complaint, as it is a requirement of the act that they do! You can make a complaint against an actual board in that case.

And the compalaints process takes some time to get to an outcome, but you should be informed once an outcome has occurred (again in the act) you can contact AHPRA to see at what stage the complaint is.

 

New Yellow pages delivered today...love all the "Money Back Garauntee" advertisements...something I thought was against the new regulations.

In some ways I would like a free for all in the advertising game...just because I love the pyscology behind what makes a consumer....consume, but if we are going to have rules then they should be applied.

 

...I have seen a couple come through via Groupon offering big discounts ...