The federal, state and territory health ministers have agreed to move to a federated model for the real-time monitoring of prescription drugs, allowing different systems to be used as long as they connect to or interface with Commonwealth ones.

The agreement, struck at the COAG Health Council meeting on Friday, appears to be a breakthrough in the drawn-out quest for a national RTPM system, which first began in 2012 when the then government bought a licence for the Electronic Recording and Reporting of Controlled Drugs (ERRCD) system from Tasmania.