Public Relations for Doctors: The NMC's 2026 Advertising Guidelines

What changed on 6 October 2026

The NMC issued a new, consolidated framework governing how registered medical practitioners, hospitals and medical institutions advertise and communicate — across newspapers, television, websites, social media, WhatsApp, influencers, sponsored posts, podcasts and AI-generated content.

The notification is R-13014/01/2024-Ethics, and the guidelines came into force on the day they were published.

The stated objectives are to protect patient interests, maintain the dignity of the medical profession, prevent the commercialisation of healthcare, and ensure truthful, evidence-based communication.

This sits alongside the earlier framework: the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, which continue to govern professional conduct, and the NMC Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, which the Commission has listed as kept in abeyance. The 2002 Code of Medical Ethics has said the central things for two decades. What the 2026 guidelines add is enforcement detail for the world as it now is — social media, influencers, WhatsApp, and AI.

What every doctor must now disclose on social media

Every post a doctor publishes on electronic media must disclose their name, qualifications, registration status, and their State Medical Register or National Medical Register registration number.

Clinical establishments must disclose the corresponding details of their doctors.

This is not a footnote. It is a formatting requirement that applies to every platform, and it is the single most common thing missing from doctor social media accounts today. It should be a template, not a decision. We build the disclosure into the post format for every healthcare retainer we run, so it is never a decision made at 11pm on a Tuesday.

A useful detail from the older Code: displaying the registration number in a clinic and on prescriptions has been required for years, under Regulation 1.4.1. The 2026 guidelines extend the same discipline into digital communication.

Patient images, videos and case material now need a real consent process

Patient names, photographs, videos, medical records, clinical images and identifiable treatment details must not be used in advertising, except where legally permitted and applicable consent and safeguards are satisfied.

In practice this means written, specific, revocable consent — covering which image, which platform, which period, and which purpose — obtained before anything clinical is published.

A verbal 'yes, use my photo' on a ward round is not that. A blank release form signed in bulk is not that either. What works is a short consent record per case, tied to a specific asset, with an expiry date and a named person who can withdraw it.

This is the deliverable most clinics need and few have, which makes it one of the most valuable things a public relations agency can actually hand a doctor. We run a consent register for every healthcare retainer we hold. It takes about two minutes per case, and it is the thing that most often does not exist.

The claims you can no longer make

'100% success', 'guaranteed cure', 'miracle treatment', 'best doctor' and 'No. 1 specialist' are restricted unless they are objectively verifiable, independently ascertainable, and otherwise permitted under applicable law.

In practice, we remove them. They work for two weeks and they are the reason a doctor's public profile eventually becomes a liability.

The guidelines also prohibit using a doctor's name, photograph, voice, signature or professional status to endorse medicines, medical devices, health products or other commercial products. If a brand approaches a doctor with that offer, the correct move is to check it before answering.

And there is a straightforward prohibition on directly or indirectly soliciting patients, on fear-based marketing, on creating unnecessary demand for procedures, and on promoting unnecessary investigations and treatments. Under the 2002 Ethics Regulations, the same principle was framed more bluntly: a physician shall not use touts or agents for procuring patients. For a doctor, that is a professional-conduct line. For a public relations agency working with doctors, it is the line that defines the kind of firm we are willing to be.

What you can still publish — and should

Doctors remain fully permitted to take part in health education programmes, public health campaigns and academic discussions, provided these do not promote personal practice or solicit patients.

Research-based scientific or educational publications and specified formal announcements — such as starting practice, changing address, or resuming practice — remain permitted.

The 2002 Code of Medical Ethics says the same thing from the other direction. Under Regulation 7.11, a physician should not contribute to lay press articles or give interviews on diseases and treatments that would have the effect of advertising or soliciting practice — but is open to writing to the lay press on public health and hygienic living, delivering public lectures, and giving talks on radio, television or internet chats on the same basis.

That is the entire content strategy for a modern healthcare practice: explain the science, answer the public's questions, publish the work, and let the reputation follow the expertise. It is also the only lane that survives a compliance review, because it was never selling anything.

The rules about AI and about how doctors get paid

Two clauses in the 2026 guidelines deserve a doctor's attention, and one of them constrains agencies rather than doctors.

On AI: Commercial AI-generated promotional campaigns are prohibited. Otherwise-compliant AI-generated promotional content must carry an explicit AI-origin disclosure. And fake patient images, synthetic testimonials, misleading clinical outcomes and manipulated digital engagement are prohibited. For a clinic producing content at volume, this determines what your production pipeline is allowed to do. If you use AI in your studio, build the disclosure in now rather than retrofitting it later.

On payment: Commissions, referral fees, rebates, gifts, bonuses or other consideration linked to patient referrals or procurement are prohibited, and marketing agencies and online platforms must not be paid in a manner linked to individual patient referrals. Read that second clause carefully. It constrains the commercial arrangements between a clinic, an agency and any intermediary. A fixed-fee communications retainer that is not linked to patient acquisition is comfortably on the right side of this line; a per-patient or per-enquiry arrangement is not. If a hospital offers you one, get advice before you sign it.

How to check your own accounts this week

A compliance check on a doctor's public presence takes about an hour, and most accounts fail at least two of these.

1. Does every post carry the disclosure? Name, qualifications, registration status, registration number. If the account bio does not carry it and the posts do not, that is the first thing to fix.

2. Is every patient image covered by a specific written consent? Not a blanket release. A specific one, with a date and an asset.

3. Do you make any restricted claim? Search your own posts for 'guaranteed', '100%', 'cure', 'best', 'no. 1', 'miracle'. Most accounts find at least one.

4. Are you endorsing a product with your name, face or voice? If so, that needs to stop.

5. Is any of your content AI-generated promotional material? If so, does it carry an explicit disclosure?

6. Is anyone in your arrangement being paid per patient referral? If the answer is yes, that conversation needs to happen before the next invoice.