Social media for private GP clinics: a practical guide

People choose a private GP because they want to be seen quickly, for longer, at a convenient time or for something specific such as a health check, travel vaccinations or a medical for work. Your posts should answer the practical questions: who are the doctors, what can they help with, how soon can I be seen, how much does it cost and where are you.

Plain, steady content does more for a clinic than chasing trends. A doctor explaining what a consultation covers in a calm, 40-second video builds more trust than a polished advert.

Three posts a week is a good rhythm for a small clinic. Agree in advance who checks clinical content before it goes out.

• Monday: an appointment explainer, such as what happens in a 30-minute consultation.
• Tuesday: a public health reminder, such as when to book a travel consultation before a trip.
• Wednesday: meet the doctor, with their GMC registration and areas of interest.
• Thursday: a service post, such as health checks, medicals or blood tests, with the full price.
• Friday: practical details, such as same-day availability, weekend hours or parking.

UK: the CAP Code says prescription-only medicines (POMs) must not be advertised to the public (rule 12.12), and the ASA's advice says the rule applies to social media posts and ads as well as leaflets and posters. It considers almost every reference to a POM to be promotion, including images such as injection pens and iconically shaped tablets, and hashtags.

The ASA's advice says it is likely to be acceptable to promote a consultation for a condition, such as "a consultation for the treatment of erectile dysfunction", as long as the POM is not referred to directly or indirectly. It has ruled against ads for weight-loss injections that named no product but referred to "GLP-1", a "weight loss injection" and showed an injection pen, and against an ad that linked to a landing page pointing to a named weight-loss pen as the outcome of the consultation.

On your own website, the ASA says POMs should not appear on the homepage, in logos or in testimonials, and information on inner pages should be balanced, factual and presented only as a possible outcome of the consultation. Price lists that mention POMs should not be on the homepage or offer discounts.

Endorsements: the ASA says using health professionals or celebrities to endorse any medicine breaches rule 12.18, and that before and after photos are not permitted for POMs.

This is general information, not legal or clinical advice. Rules differ by country and change, so check with your regulator, professional body or a lawyer before you post claims, prices or photos of the people you serve.

1. Write every service post around the condition and the consultation, not a medicine.
2. Remove medicine names, pack shots, pen images and medicine hashtags from posts and highlights.
3. Check where each ad links: the landing page must follow the same rules.
4. Keep medicine information on inner website pages, balanced and factual.
5. Never run discounts or countdowns on anything that could lead to a POM.

Sources: ASA Advice Online: Healthcare, prescription-only medicines, checked 15 October 2026; ASA Advice Online: Healthcare, prescription-only medicines (websites), checked 15 October 2026

GMC: the GMC's guidance on using social media as a medical professional says you must take reasonable steps to make sure what you communicate is not false or misleading, does not exploit people's vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge and does not misrepresent your experience and qualifications (paragraph 11). If you use social media to advertise your services, you must be open about any interests that may influence your recommendations and follow the CAP Code, the ASA and the CMA (paragraph 12). If you comment on health issues you should usually say who you are (paragraph 8).

Confidentiality: the GMC says you must not disclose identifiable information about patients on social media without explicit consent, and warns that small details can add up to identify someone (paragraphs 19 and 20).

CQC ratings online: under Regulation 20A, a provider with a CQC rating must show it on every website it maintains, with the CQC's website address, where the latest assessment can be found and the date it was given. CQC can prosecute for a breach without first serving a warning notice. Your social media profiles should link to a website that does this.

US: HHS says that, with limited exceptions, the HIPAA Privacy Rule requires a patient's written authorization before their protected health information is used for marketing.

Sources: GMC: Using social media as a medical professional, checked 15 October 2026; CQC: Regulation 20A, requirement as to display of performance assessments, checked 15 October 2026; HHS: HIPAA Privacy Rule, marketing, checked 15 October 2026

Private patients compare prices, so show them clearly. The CMA says it is illegal to hide extra fees until later in the purchase process, and the headline price should normally include unavoidable charges. If blood tests, prescriptions or referral letters cost extra, say so in the same post.

Google's guidelines let individual practitioners such as doctors have their own Business Profile if they are public-facing and can be contacted at the verified location during stated hours, alongside a profile for the clinic. Google's review policy bans incentives for reviews and selectively asking happy patients. In the US, the FTC's 2024 rule bans fake reviews, and its endorsement guidance says an ad must make clear what people can generally expect if a patient's experience is not typical.

Reply to reviews without confirming that someone is a patient or discussing any detail of their care.

Sources: GOV.UK (CMA): Providing clear and accurate information about prices, summary, checked 15 October 2026; Google Business Profile Help: Guidelines for representing your business on Google, checked 15 October 2026; Google Maps user-generated content policy: fake engagement, checked 15 October 2026; FTC: Final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (August 2024), checked 15 October 2026; FTC: FTC's Endorsement Guides, what people are asking, checked 15 October 2026

Plan around the year: new year health checks, travel season in spring and summer, school and university medicals in late summer, and winter illnesses from October.

Disclosure: this guide is published by Zolyp, an AI social media manager. Zolyp plans a calendar around your content pillars, writes and designs each post, and schedules it to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads. You start in review-everything mode, so nothing goes live without your approval. Brand Brain can hold words and topics you never want used, such as medicine brand names or "weight loss injection". Zolyp does not check posts against the CAP Code, GMC guidance or CQC rules, so a clinician should read every post before you approve it. Everything in this guide works just as well done by hand.

• Week 1: check Google hours, prices, doctor profiles and your website's CQC rating.
• Week 2: film two short what-to-expect videos with your doctors.
• Week 3: one seasonal service post and one meet-the-team post.
• Week 4: reply to reviews, check every ad's landing page and plan next month.