NMC Advertising Guidelines 2026: What Doctors and Hospitals Can and Cannot Post

NMC advertising guidelines 2026 for doctors and hospitals, explained - Ayumanager PRO

On 6 October 2026, the National Medical Commission (NMC) published its Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication by Hospitals/Medical Institutions and Registered Medical Practitioners. They took effect immediately.

The guidelines cover websites, blogs, social media, WhatsApp, influencers and AI-generated content. If your clinic or hospital has an Instagram page, a website or a marketing agency, they affect you. This article summarises what the document says, in plain language.

This is a summary for general information, not legal advice. Read the original public notice on the NMC website (No. R-13014/01/2024-Ethics, dated 06/10/2026), and consult your State Medical Council or a legal adviser for your own case.

The short version

Factual information is allowed. Name, address, departments, facilities, services, accreditation and fees.
Promotion and solicitation are not. No "best doctor", "No.1", "100% success", guaranteed cures or fear-based marketing.
Patient testimonials and before-and-after photos are out for promotional use, even with patient consent.
AI-generated promotional campaigns are prohibited. Other AI content must be labelled as AI.
Using an agency or influencer does not shift responsibility. You remain answerable for content you authorised or knowingly permitted.
Penalties are graded, from a warning up to removal from the medical register for 1 to 3 years.

Why the guidelines were issued

The public notice says the guidelines were framed in view of Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1160/2023 before the Supreme Court of India and the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002. The stated objectives include:

preserving the dignity of the medical profession;
preventing commercialization of health care;
protecting patients from misleading medical claims;
keeping healthcare communication informational, ethical and evidence-based;
aligning hospital advertising with the standards that apply to doctors;
regulating digital healthcare promotion; and
ensuring ethical parity across all systems of medicine.

Who the guidelines apply to

Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs): practitioners registered under the NMC Act whose names are in the National Register or a State Medical Register.
Hospitals and medical institutions: clinical establishments that diagnose, treat or care for in-patients or out-patients in any recognised system of medicine.

For RMPs, the guidelines are read with the 2002 Ethics Regulations and the NMC Act, 2019. For hospitals, they are read with the applicable Clinical Establishment Act or State Act, which prevails if there is a conflict.

What counts as an "advertisement"

The definition is wide. An advertisement is any communication, in any medium, that directly or indirectly solicits or promotes the professional services, reputation, skills, qualifications, achievements, facilities or commercial healthcare services of an RMP or hospital.

The listed media include print, television, radio, social media, websites and blogs, messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, podcasts, influencer marketing, sponsored posts, AI-generated promotion, public interviews, and news articles intended for promotion.

What is not treated as advertising:

Information shared in the normal course, without promotional character or commercial intent.
Factual information that equipment, technology or a service is available, as long as it carries no claims of superiority, guaranteed accuracy or guaranteed outcomes.
Campaigns for Government of India and state government programmes in the larger public interest.

What is prohibited

These are the main prohibitions in Chapter III of the guidelines. Most are addressed to RMPs; the rows on superiority claims, inducements and fake engagement also name hospitals and medical institutions.

Area	What the guidelines prohibit
Solicitation	Soliciting patients directly or indirectly, self-promotion, and engaging a third party to market medical services.
Fear and demand	Fear-based marketing, and advertising meant to create unnecessary demand for procedures or diagnostics.
Exaggerated claims	"Guaranteed cures", "Best doctors", "No.1 Specialist", "100% success", "painless treatment", "Miracle treatment", "Exclusive cure", and advertising success rates or number of patients treated.
Superiority claims	"Best", "leading", "most trusted", "top" and similar, unless objectively verifiable by a transparent, independent methodology. Any award or ranking used must be independently verifiable, with its source and date disclosed.
Product endorsement	Endorsing or recommending any drug, device, health product or commercial product in advertising, whether or not payment is received.
Cases and results	Publishing cases for promotion, advertising surgical results, before-and-after photographs, publicising celebrity patients and personal success stories, unless strictly scientific or educational with anonymized patient consent.
Unproven therapies	Statements that create unrealistic expectations, conceal risks, or promote unproven therapies or secret remedies.
Commissions	Commissions, referral fees, lead-generation fees or similar payments connected with referring or procuring patients. Agency and platform contracts must not link payment to individual patients referred.
Inducements	Discounts, limited-period offers, contests, coupons, cashbacks, referral benefits or free procedures used in a way that encourages unnecessary consultation or treatment, or amounts to solicitation.
Third parties	Using celebrities, influencers, patients or employees for prohibited testimonials or endorsements, or using any intermediary to do indirectly what is prohibited directly.
Fake engagement	Fake followers, likes, reviews, ratings or views, and manipulating search rankings or algorithms to create a misleading impression of professional standing.

Patient testimonials, reviews and privacy

This is the part most clinic social media pages will need to check.

An RMP shall not request or share patient testimonials, recommendations, endorsements or reviews for professional promotion on social media.
No RMP or hospital may solicit, purchase, manipulate or publish fake, paid or misleading reviews, ratings or testimonials.
Patient photographs, videos, records, clinical images and treatment details must not be used for advertising, except where the law permits it and consent and safeguards are in place.
Consent does not cure a prohibited practice. A patient's consent does not make a testimonial, before-and-after depiction or success claim permissible if it is otherwise prohibited.
Where consent is legally required, it must be specific, informed, voluntary, documented and verifiable.
Identifiable patient data such as names and faces must not be shared publicly. Even where disclosure is lawful, identifying details should be cropped, blurred or blacked out.
Any use of digital personal data must comply with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and its Rules.

AI-generated content

The guidelines address AI directly:

AI-generated promotional campaigns for commercial interest are prohibited.
AI-generated content that otherwise conforms to the guidelines must carry a source mark stating that its origin is AI.
AI must not be used to create misleading or unverifiable representations about diagnosis, treatment, outcomes, qualifications or patient experiences.
AI must not be used to create or manipulate a patient's image, testimonial, voice or clinical outcome, or to create a synthetic endorsement.
Patient information used as input to an AI system must comply with privacy and data-protection requirements.

What is still allowed

The guidelines restrict promotion, not information. These remain permitted.

For hospitals and clinics:

Factual, objective and verifiable information: name, location, contact details, departments, facilities, equipment, services, emergency services, accreditation status and charges.
A website directory of doctors with names, recognised qualifications, specialties, registration details and availability. The guidelines treat this as a patient-information function, distinct from a paid or promotional advertisement.
Hoardings in public spaces, for factual information about infrastructure and facilities only.
Lawful disclosure of charges, packages or fees, provided it is factual, transparent and not misleading.

For doctors:

Formal, factual announcements on starting practice, change of type of practice, change of address, temporary absence, resumption of practice, succeeding to another practice, and public declaration of charges.
Lectures and talks on public health through television, radio and electronic media, in their own name and designation, without promoting their employer.
Health awareness programmes, public health campaigns, academic discussions and educational content, provided these do not promote personal practice, solicit patients or get monetized through promotional marketing.
Health education pamphlets for patients visiting the clinic, without guarantees of cure or claims of superiority.
Research-based communication of case studies published in reputed medical journals.
Greetings on days of national importance, without advertising professional gains.

Disclosure on electronic media

An RMP publishing electronic media posts should disclose their name, qualifications, registration status and SMR/NMR registration number.
A clinical establishment publishing such posts should disclose the names of the RMPs with their qualifications, registration status and registration number.
Use of an RMP's photograph is not permitted where it amounts to self-advertisement, solicitation or promotional publicity.
Healthcare platforms that list doctors must comply with these norms, must not offer paid ranking of doctors, and must be transparent about how listings work.

Penalties and appeals

For RMPs, action is taken by the concerned State Medical Council (SMC). The guidelines list graded action that the SMC may contemplate:

Violation	Action
First violation	Warning and mandatory ethics training
Second violation	Censure and monetary penalty
Third violation	Suspension of registration for 3 to 6 months
Serious violation (misleading cure claims, inducement of patients, digital mass solicitation)	Suspension for 6 to 12 months
Repeated violations	Removal from the medical register for 1 to 3 years

Penalties can be imposed only after a show-cause notice and an opportunity to respond, and the SMC must issue a reasoned order.

An RMP can appeal to the Ethics and Medical Registration Board of the NMC within 60 days, and file a second appeal within sixty days of that decision.

Hospitals and medical institutions are dealt with under the applicable Clinical Establishment Act or State Act. Where a doctor personally authorised or took part in a hospital's prohibited communication, that doctor's conduct can be examined separately.

What this means for Ayurveda clinics and hospitals

Read the applicability carefully:

The definition of RMP is limited to practitioners registered under the NMC Act, which governs modern medicine.
The definition of hospital or medical institution covers clinical establishments in any recognised system of medicine, and one stated objective is to "ensure ethical parity across all systems of medicine".

So an Ayurveda hospital or Panchakarma centre that is a clinical establishment should treat these guidelines as relevant to its advertising. Ayurveda practitioners are also governed by their own regulator's code of professional conduct, and by existing laws on misleading health advertisements, which already restrict cure claims.

The practical conclusion is the same in either case: keep public communication factual, avoid cure and superiority claims, and keep patients' identities out of promotion. If you are unsure how the guidelines apply to your establishment, ask your state council or a legal adviser.

A 10-point check for your website and social media

Remove "best", "No.1", "leading", "most trusted" and similar claims, unless you can show an independent, verifiable basis.
Remove "guaranteed", "100% success", "painless" and "miracle" wording.
Take down patient testimonials and review screenshots used for promotion.
Take down before-and-after photos and promotional success stories.
Check every image and video for identifiable patients.
Add the doctor's name, qualifications, registration status and registration number to professional posts.
Review offers, discount campaigns, coupons and referral schemes.
Review agency, influencer and listing-platform contracts for per-patient or per-lead payments.
Label any AI-generated content as AI, and stop AI-generated promotional campaigns.
Keep what is factual: services, departments, facilities, timings, accreditation, fees and the doctor directory.

Educational content remains welcome. A clear explanation of a condition, a public health message or a patient information leaflet serves patients and stays within the guidelines, provided it does not promote your own practice.

Good records support all of this. Documented consent, accurate case papers and clear fee schedules are what you rely on if a communication is ever questioned. If you want to see how Ayurveda case records are kept in software, read our guide to NABH documentation requirements or explore Ayumanager PRO for Ayurveda doctors.

Source: National Medical Commission, Ethics and Medical Registration Board, Public Notice No. R-13014/01/2024-Ethics dated 06/10/2026. Download the notice and guidelines from nmc.org.in.

Frequently asked questions

What are the NMC advertising guidelines 2026?

They are the Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication by Hospitals/Medical Institutions and Registered Medical Practitioners, issued by the National Medical Commission's Ethics and Medical Registration Board through a public notice dated 6 October 2026 (No. R-13014/01/2024-Ethics). They came into force with immediate effect.

Can doctors share patient testimonials on social media?

No. The guidelines say a Registered Medical Practitioner shall not request or share patient testimonials, recommendations, endorsements or reviews for professional promotion on social media. Fake, paid or misleading reviews and ratings are also prohibited, and patient consent does not make a prohibited testimonial permissible.

Can doctors post before-and-after photos?

Not for promotion. The guidelines prohibit displaying before-and-after photographs, advertising surgical results and promoting personal success stories, unless published strictly for scientific or educational purposes with anonymized patient consent.

Can a hospital or clinic still have a website?

Yes. Hospitals and medical institutions may publish factual, objective and verifiable information such as name, location, contact details, departments, facilities, equipment, services, emergency services, accreditation status and charges. A website directory of doctors with names, recognised qualifications, specialties, registration details and availability is treated as patient information, not as a paid or promotional advertisement.

Is AI-generated content allowed in healthcare promotion?

AI-generated promotional campaigns for commercial interest are prohibited. AI-generated content that otherwise conforms to the guidelines must carry a source mark stating that its origin is AI, and AI must not be used to create or manipulate a patient's image, testimonial, voice or clinical outcome.

What are the penalties for violating the NMC advertising guidelines?

The guidelines set out graded action that a State Medical Council may contemplate: a warning and mandatory ethics training for a first violation, censure and a monetary penalty for a second, suspension of registration for 3 to 6 months for a third, suspension for 6 to 12 months for a serious violation, and removal from the medical register for 1 to 3 years for repeated violations. A show-cause notice and a reasoned order are required.

Do the NMC advertising guidelines apply to Ayurveda doctors?

The guidelines define a Registered Medical Practitioner as one registered under the NMC Act, which covers modern medicine. However, the definition of hospital or medical institution covers clinical establishments in any recognised system of medicine, and one stated objective is ethical parity across all systems of medicine. Ayurveda practitioners are also governed by their own regulator's code of ethics and by laws on misleading advertisements, so the same cautious approach is sensible.