The federal government has agreed to invest over $16 million to realise the belated roll-out of a real-time prescription monitoring (RTPM) scheme, which will be based on the Electronic Reporting and Recording of Controlled Drugs (ERRCD) system first announced by the previous government in 2012.

After years of pressure to introduce the system from medical and pharmacy groups, the medical software industry, patient advocacy groups and several state coroners, the government announced today that it would move to introduce the system on a national scale to alert pharmacists and doctors if patients received multiple supplies of prescription-only medicines.