Choosing a dentist or a GP is a trust decision, not a price decision. A review alleging a botched procedure, a misdiagnosis or unsafe practice carries far more weight with a prospective patient than a complaint about waiting time, and it often names a specific practitioner rather than the clinic.
The usual defence is unavailable. A restaurant can publicly explain what happened at table nine; a clinic generally cannot confirm that a person was even a patient, let alone discuss their treatment. Silence then reads to other readers as agreement.
That makes the policy route more important, not less. Google does not remove a review because a clinician disagrees with it, but it does have policies covering personal attacks, private information, content about the wrong business, and reviewers with a conflict of interest — and those can be pursued without disclosing anything clinical.