This page explains general principles around medical advertising rules. Regulations change — check current Ministry of Health guidance, or take legal advice, before relying on any specific detail here.
The test is who the sentence is about
If the subject of your sentence is a condition, a procedure or a population, you are educating. If the subject is the person reading — their symptoms, their medication, their scan — you are consulting. The topic does not matter; the grammar does.
This is why the same content is safe in a post and unsafe in a comment reply. The post addresses everyone; the reply addresses one identifiable person who has just told you their symptoms.
Selling products or courses alongside the clinic?
Shopify is the quickest way to put a store behind your name — try it free.
Three rules that keep captions safe
Describe, then define the threshold. What the condition is, and at what point it needs to be seen. That gives the reader something actionable without prescribing to them. Include the limit. One line stating that this is general information and not a substitute for assessment — written once, used every time.
Never answer 'what should I do' publicly. Acknowledge, decline to assess remotely, and offer the consultation. Three sentences, same words every time, so nobody on your team improvises.
The DMs are where it actually goes wrong
Comments are public and people are careful in them. Private messages are where a doctor ends up looking at a photo of a lesion at 11pm and typing an opinion with no record, no examination and no follow-up — which is the exact scenario every professional body warns about.
The fix is operational, not moral: an instant automated reply that answers the general question, declines the specific one, and offers two appointment times. It removes the temptation and it books more patients than an opinion ever would.