Pulse ·

SafeScript cut prescription-shopping by 15% — and held the gain

By Dr HB Lo, FACRRM 4 min read
Verdict Yes — worth knowing about

A Monash University study of 6.7 million prescriptions for 810,000 Victorian patients found SafeScript produced a 15% reduction in patients seeing four or more prescribers for monitored medicines after its 2019 introduction. The gain was sustained when it became mandatory in 2020.

Eighty-five per cent of multiple prescriber episodes involved at least one opioid. Ninety-six per cent occurred within the same clinic rather than across multiple practices.

SafeScript is a clinical tool, not a verdict — it should prompt a prescribing conversation and safety plan, not an automatic refusal that may push patients toward illicit supply.

What just happened

A Monash University study published in the Medical Journal of Australia has put numbers to what SafeScript has achieved in Victoria. Analysing 6.7 million prescriptions for 810,000 patients across 562 general practices between 2017 and 2023, researchers found a 15% reduction in patients seeing four or more prescribers for monitored medicines when SafeScript was introduced voluntarily in 2019. The decline was sustained — and continued — after the programme became mandatory for Victorian GPs in 2020.

The headline statistic that sits beneath that reduction: 85% of multiple prescriber episodes involved at least one opioid prescription. And 96% of cases occurred within the same clinic — meaning that “doctor shopping” across multiple practices was far less common than within-clinic multiple prescriber patterns, which the programme was specifically designed to surface.

This matters against a backdrop of real harm. The Penington Institute’s 2026 Overdose Snapshot found opioids were the most common drug involved in unintentional overdose deaths, contributing to 41.9% of deaths in 2023-24. Prescription opioids are not the only driver of that figure, but they are a significant one — and the monitoring data suggests SafeScript has made a dent.

The both-and

What SafeScript is actually doing well

The 15% reduction in multiple prescriber events is a meaningful outcome in a domain where achieving measurable change in prescribing behaviour is genuinely difficult. Prescription monitoring programmes have been contested in clinical circles — some GPs have raised concerns about surveillance, about disrupting the therapeutic relationship, and about the risk that patients who are denied prescriptions will turn to illicit alternatives. Those concerns are not unfounded. The research literature on mandatory monitoring is mixed across jurisdictions.

What the SafeScript data shows is that, in the Victorian context, the programme has achieved its primary behavioural target: fewer patients are obtaining monitored medications from multiple prescribers. The research lead, Dr Louisa Picco, noted that “abrupt changes to a patient’s treatment have been linked to serious harms, including overdose and transition from prescription to illicit drugs” — which is precisely why the design of how the programme is implemented matters as much as whether it is implemented.

Victoria’s SafeScript programme requires a check before prescribing, not a refusal. The GP sees the data and then exercises clinical judgment. That structure — information to inform a conversation rather than a gate to block a prescription — is the frame within which the 15% figure was achieved. The programme is telling clinicians something, and clinicians are responding to it.

The tool-not-verdict principle

Dr Hester Wilson from the RACGP was clear: SafeScript is “a tool to help us with our safe prescribing, but we need to use our clinical acumen.” Dr Eric Hadinata, an addiction medicine specialist quoted in the RACGP coverage, described it as a “tool, not a verdict” — and the distinction matters enormously in practice.

A patient presenting with multiple opioid prescriptions in the SafeScript system may be in complex pain requiring careful titration across multiple treating practitioners. They may have recently moved and their GP history is fragmented. They may have a legitimate chronic pain condition where the monitoring system correctly flags a pattern that is being managed appropriately but looks unusual in isolation. Or they may have an active substance use disorder — and even in that case, the response should be a safety plan and warm referral to addiction medicine services, not a door shut in their face.

The 15% reduction was achieved without turning SafeScript into a blunt prescribing barrier. Whether that balance holds as the programme embeds more deeply into routine general practice — and as patients become more aware that the system exists — is a question worth watching.

2 cents

If you or someone you care for takes opioids, benzodiazepines, or other monitored medications in Victoria, SafeScript is part of the general practice consultation now. That is not a threat — it is a safety check. The GP looking at that record is doing so to make sure your medications are coordinated, your doses make sense, and that nothing has slipped between the cracks of different prescribers or urgent care visits.

The data suggests the programme has worked, in the specific sense of reducing a pattern associated with harm. The question it leaves open is whether the patients who no longer appear in the multiple-prescriber data have had their underlying needs met — or have simply moved elsewhere. That is the part no monitoring programme can see.

Verdict: yes — worth knowing about.

Sources cited

  1. RACGP newsGP — SafeScript prompts sustained decline in multiple prescribers. June 2026. https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/safescript-prompts-sustained-decline-in-multiple-p
  2. Medical Journal of Australia — SafeScript study. Monash University. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.5694/mja2.70219
  3. Penington Institute — 2026 Overdose Snapshot. https://www.penington.org.au/
  4. Victoria — SafeScript for prescribers and pharmacists. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/safescript/safescript-for-prescribers-and-pharmacists

Frequently asked questions

  • What medications does SafeScript monitor?

    SafeScript monitors a defined list of high-risk medications including opioid analgesics (codeine, oxycodone, fentanyl, morphine, hydromorphone, tapentadol, buprenorphine), benzodiazepines (diazepam, alprazolam, temazepam), and certain other monitored drugs. When a GP prescribes one of these medications in Victoria, they are required to check the SafeScript system to see whether the patient has recent prescriptions for the same drug class from other prescribers. This is intended to identify patterns of high-risk medication use — not to prevent appropriate prescribing, but to add a safety layer and create a conversation where there may be an underlying problem.

  • What should I do if my GP brings up SafeScript when I'm picking up a pain or anxiety prescription?

    SafeScript is a monitoring tool used by GPs as a safety check — if it flagged anything, your GP is reviewing your prescription history to make sure your current treatment plan is safe and well-coordinated. This is not a punitive process; it is a clinical one. If you are managing a chronic condition with monitored medications, it may be worth proactively discussing your overall medication plan with your GP so that any prescriptions from other providers — including urgent care or interstate — are factored into the picture. The goal is a coordinated safety plan, not a refusal.