Patient guide
What does real-time prescription monitoring show your Clinician?
When a prescriber or pharmacist checks SafeScript, QScript or one of the other state systems, they are reading a record of certain medicines supplied to you. This guide explains what is in that record, who can see it, where checking is required, and how you can see it yourself. It is general information, not medical or legal advice.
Verified against state and territory health department pages on 30 September 2026. Rules change; check your own health department before you rely on this.
The short answer
- Every state and territory runs a real-time prescription monitoring system. It records when certain higher-risk medicines are prescribed and dispensed to you, as it happens.
- The systems monitor Schedule 8 medicines, plus a list of Schedule 4 medicines each jurisdiction has declared higher risk. The lists differ a little from state to state.
- The record holds supply details: your name and address, the medicine, strength and quantity, the dates, and who prescribed and dispensed it. It does not hold your consultation notes.
- In Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania, prescribers and pharmacists are required to check before prescribing or dispensing a monitored medicine. In NSW and the ACT, checking is encouraged but voluntary.
- The system informs the decision. It does not make it, and it does not stop a Clinician prescribing what they judge appropriate.
Changing clinics
Moving your care from another clinic?
Our changing clinics page explains what to bring: your current prescription details and, if you have one, a treatment summary. A LeafLine Clinician reviews your history at a first consultation and decides what happens next.
At a glance
The eight systems, side by side
Each state and territory runs its own system under its own law. The detail on what they record follows below.
| Where you live | System | Checking before prescribing | Seeing your own record |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victoria | SafeScript | Required since 1 April 2020, for prescribers and pharmacists | Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health |
| New South Wales | SafeScript NSW | Encouraged, not mandatory (NSW Health guidance, May 2024) | Email request to NSW Health; answered in most cases within 28 days |
| Queensland | QScript | Required by law in most cases, for prescribers and pharmacists | Right to Information request to Queensland Health |
| South Australia | ScriptCheckSA | Required: all reasonable steps to check before prescribing or dispensing | Freedom of Information request to the Department for Health and Wellbeing |
| Western Australia | ScriptCheckWA | Set by WA Health; see its ScriptCheckWA page | Ask WA Health |
| Tasmania | TasScript | Required: all reasonable steps to check before issuing or dispensing | Ask the Department of Health |
| Northern Territory | NTScript | Monitoring is mandatory and there is no opt-out | View it with your treating practitioner, or a Freedom of Information request |
| ACT | Canberra Script | Voluntary for health professionals, though all who prescribe or dispense monitored medicines should use it | Ask your practitioner, or email ACT Health |
Current at 30 September 2026. General information, not legal advice. WA Health's website was unavailable when this guide was verified, so the Western Australian checking rule is not restated here; the ScriptCheckWA terms of use confirm the system covers Schedule 8 medicines and Schedule 4 reportable medicines.
Start here
Three things that hold in every state
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It records supply, not your story
What goes in is the transaction: the medicine, strength and quantity, the dates, and the prescriber and pharmacy involved. Victoria states that medical notes are not included, and South Australia adds test results and medicines outside the monitored list.
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Every look is logged
Access is limited to prescribers and pharmacists treating you, plus the state regulator. Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT all state that each view of a record is logged, and misuse carries penalties and referral to regulators.
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It informs; your Clinician decides
Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory each say in terms that their system does not decide whether a medicine can be prescribed or supplied. The record is information for the conversation. The clinical decision stays with the practitioner, and yours stays with you.
What it is
Why these systems exist
Before real-time monitoring, a prescriber had no reliable way to know that a patient had been supplied the same kind of medicine by someone else last week. In the Northern Territory, pharmacies sent a weekly report of Schedule 8 dispensing to the regulator from 1983, and a practitioner who wanted a patient's history had to ask for it by email or phone.
Real-time systems close that gap. When a monitored medicine is prescribed or dispensed, the details flow automatically from the prescribing and pharmacy software into the state database, and the next practitioner to check sees them straight away. Nobody fills in a separate form, and you do not register for anything.
In 2018 the state and territory health ministers and the Commonwealth agreed on a federated model based on Victoria's SafeScript, with every jurisdiction linking to a national data exchange. That is why the eight systems look alike even though each sits under its own state law.
If something on your record surprises you, raise it in the consultation. That is what the record is for.
The record
What is recorded, and what is not
The official descriptions line up closely. A record in these systems holds your name and address (South Australia and the ACT add date of birth), the medicine's name, strength and quantity, the date it was prescribed and the date it was dispensed, and the details of the prescriber and the pharmacy.
Some systems carry more. Canberra Script shows ACT Chief Health Officer approvals to prescribe, and ScriptCheckSA shows Schedule 8 authorities. Several systems raise alerts when the history matches a pattern associated with harm, such as four or more prescribers in 90 days.
Just as useful is knowing what stays out. Victoria states that medical notes are not part of a SafeScript record. South Australia states that ScriptCheckSA holds no medical notes, no test results and no medicines outside the monitored list. The record tells your Clinician what was supplied and by whom, and your Clinician will still ask you about the reasons.
Your privacy
Consent, opting out and seeing your own record
A treating prescriber or pharmacist does not need your permission to look. Victoria, NSW, South Australia and the ACT say so directly, and the reasoning is practical: a record a patient could withhold would not show the pattern it exists to catch. For the same reason, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT all state that you cannot opt out of being recorded.
The counterweight is who else can look. Access is limited to practitioners treating you and the state regulator, each view is logged, and misuse is an offence. Tasmania makes it an offence under the Poisons Act 1971 for a practitioner to open a record of anyone not in their care, including their own family.
You cannot log in yourself, but you can get a copy. The route is the state's ordinary information-access process: Freedom of Information in Victoria, South Australia and the Northern Territory, Right to Information in Queensland, an email request in NSW and the ACT. It is often simpler to ask your Clinician to talk you through what they can see during an appointment, and the Northern Territory names this as a way to view the record.
Read this if you have moved state
A record built in one state may not follow you to the next
The national link is still being completed. Canberra Script already shows monitored medicines prescribed or dispensed interstate for ACT residents, but NSW Health's guidance says information from another state should still be checked through that state's own system. Tasmania has gone further: since 16 February 2026, a prescriber outside Tasmania must check TasScript before prescribing a monitored medicine for a Tasmanian resident. If your earlier prescriptions came from another state, tell your Clinician at the first appointment and bring what you have. The renewal guide covers what to have ready, and our changing clinics page sets out how a transfer works.
Prescription monitoring: common questions
What is real-time prescription monitoring?
A state or territory database that records when certain higher-risk medicines are prescribed and dispensed, and shows that history to the prescribers and pharmacists treating you at the moment they need it. Each jurisdiction runs its own system: SafeScript in Victoria, SafeScript NSW, QScript in Queensland, ScriptCheckWA, ScriptCheckSA, TasScript, NTScript and Canberra Script in the ACT. This is general information, not medical or legal advice.
Which medicines are monitored?
The systems cover Schedule 8 medicines. Each jurisdiction also monitors a list of Schedule 4 medicines it has declared higher risk, particularly in combination with Schedule 8 medicines. The lists differ slightly between states, and each health department publishes its own. South Australia and Tasmania both state that private prescriptions are monitored in the same way as PBS-subsidised ones.
What can my Clinician see?
The prescribing and dispensing history for monitored medicines: the medicine, strength and quantity, the dates, and which prescriber and pharmacy were involved. Some systems also show state approvals or authorities to prescribe, and alerts where the history suggests a higher risk, such as several prescribers in a short period. Consultation notes and test results are not part of the record.
Do I have to consent before my Clinician looks?
No. Treating prescribers and pharmacists are authorised by law to view your record without asking first. Victoria, NSW, South Australia and the ACT say so in terms. Anyone not involved in your care is not permitted to look, and every view is logged.
Can I opt out of being recorded?
No. South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT all state that patients cannot opt out, because the record only works if it is complete. The Northern Territory adds that practitioners should tell you when a medicine will be recorded, so that you can choose a different treatment if you would rather not be.
Can I see my own record?
Yes, though not by logging in; patients do not get their own access. The route depends on where you live. Victoria and South Australia use a Freedom of Information request, Queensland a Right to Information request, NSW an email request to NSW Health, and the ACT an email to ACT Health. In the Northern Territory you can also view it with a treating practitioner who is registered for NTScript.
Does it show prescriptions from other states?
Not reliably, yet. The states agreed in 2018 to link their systems through a national data exchange, and the ACT states that Canberra Script shows monitored medicines prescribed or dispensed interstate for ACT residents. NSW Health’s guidance says a national data-sharing framework is still being developed, and that information from another state should still be checked through that state’s own system. If you have moved recently, tell your Clinician where your earlier prescriptions came from.
Will something on my record stop me being prescribed a medicine?
Not by itself. Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all state that their system does not prevent a practitioner prescribing or dispensing. An alert is a prompt to talk it through. The decision belongs to your Clinician, based on the whole clinical picture.
What if my record is wrong?
Raise it. In South Australia, corrections go through the prescriber or pharmacist who created the entry. In the ACT, access and correction requests go to ACT Health by email. Elsewhere, start with the practitioner or pharmacy named against the entry, then the state health department.
Who else can see my record?
Staff of the state or territory medicines regulator, for regulatory purposes. Queensland states that inappropriate access can be referred to the Health Ombudsman, Tasmania to Tasmania Police and AHPRA, and South Australia to AHPRA. The ACT states that the Commonwealth has no access to personal information in the national data exchange.
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