On Wednesday, the federal government announced plans to reform how medications are dispensed and tracked, aiming to reduce unsafe use, stockpiling and “doctor shopping”.
This will include two stages. First, the government will require all online and telehealth prescribers to upload information about a patient’s prescribed medications to their My Health Record.
Second, the government plans to develop a National Medicines Record – an over-arching database to register and monitor all current prescriptions.
So, how would this work? While some detail is still lacking, here’s what we know.
Why is this needed?
An increasing number of Australians take multiple medications. Recent research analysing prescribing patterns in Australia estimates almost two million of us took five or more regular medicines in 2024.
While multiple medicines are often needed to manage multiple conditions, there are risks of adverse effects.
And when a clinician prescribes medication or a pharmacist dispenses it without a full understanding of the patient’s current medications, it can lead to harmful interactions between them.
This can make a patient sicker and often lands them in hospital. An estimated 1.5 million people in Australia experience some kind of harmful side effect from using medicine each year.
Those at particular risk are older adults taking numerous medications, as well as those transitioning between health-care settings (such as going into hospital or returning home).
Sometimes patients also stockpile medications, including through consulting multiple doctors, known as “doctor shopping”. For example, they might do this to obtain extra supplies of addictive pain medication.
How does it work right now?
Currently, there is no centralised, mandatory register that records all of the medicines a person is prescribed and dispensed.
Instead, prescribing information may be siloed in hospital and aged care systems, general practice records and those of online telehealth providers such as Instant Scripts, 13SICK and Hola Health.
