New patients:
where they really come from.

Most clinic marketing advice is about ads. Most new patients don't come from ads. They come from a GP, a specialist or another practitioner, from a friend or relative, from a Google search for a clinic nearby, or from a booking app they already use.

The mix depends on what you do. A physio or podiatrist near a busy GP clinic may get much of their work by referral. A psychologist or skin clinic may get more from search. A GP clinic may pick up many first-time patients through booking apps. Ask every new patient how they found you, record it in your practice software, and you'll have your own answer within a quarter.

For allied health, a patient's first visit often starts with a GP. Under a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan, eligible patients can claim Medicare benefits for up to five individual allied health services a calendar year.

That cap shapes what a referred patient asks about. Many want to know what happens after visit five. A plain fees page, with and without a plan, answers it before they ring, and stops the awkward conversation at the front desk.

Earning referrals is about being easy to refer to, not about rewarding the referrer. The shared Code of conduct used by many registered health professions says practitioners should not offer inducements to colleagues or enter into arrangements that could be perceived to provide inducements, and should act in patients' best interests when making referrals. What GPs value is a useful report back, a short wait and a clinic their patients don't complain about.

Booking platforms are a lead source and a booking tool at once, and they charge in different ways. HotDoc says it handles 1.1 million online bookings a month, with unlimited bookings in per-practitioner packages and no new patient fees. Healthengine lists a marketplace profile, online booking, recalls and reviews tools among its practice products, and says it has more than 10,000 customers, but doesn't publish prices on that page.

So compare them on what you pay per new patient, not per month. A flat fee that brings two new patients a week is a different deal from one that brings two a month. Ask each platform how it counts a 'new patient', and check that against your own records.

Keep your own booking path working too. A patient who finds you on an app may still check your website first. If the website shows different hours or a different 'Book now' link, that's a reason to book somewhere else.

A new patient enquiry is personal information, and often health information. Health service providers are covered by the Privacy Act whatever their turnover, so the small business exemption doesn't help a three-practitioner physio clinic.

The OAIC's guidance for health providers says direct marketing using health information is only permitted with the implied or express consent of the individual, and that messages sent to a practice's whole database generally need express consent. A reminder about an appointment someone booked is treated differently from a promotion.

NSW adds a second layer. Private health service providers also work under the HRIP Act and its 15 Health Privacy Principles, overseen by the Information and Privacy Commission NSW. Victoria and the ACT have their own health records laws as well.

Emails and texts fall under the Spam Act too, which needs consent, accurate sender details and a working unsubscribe. Marketing calls to numbers on the Do Not Call Register need consent, and calling hours apply to every telemarketing call.

Pick who you're contacting and what you want to send. It lists the rules that apply and a safer way to do it. It's a guide to the published rules, not legal advice.

Most lost new patients aren't lost to a competitor's ad. They're lost to a voicemail on a Monday morning, a web form nobody opens until Thursday, or a receptionist who can't say whether the practitioner treats that problem.

Three fixes cover most of it. Give reception a one-page list of what each practitioner treats, what they don't, and the current wait for each. Check web forms at least twice a day, and reply with a time to call or a booking link. And open online booking to new patients where your practice software allows it, so someone searching at 10pm can book at 10pm.

Then count the right thing: new patients who attended, by source, not enquiries or clicks. The clinic budget page works out what a new patient is worth to you, which tells you what you can afford to spend to get one.