National Opioid Pharmacotherapy Statistics Annual Data collection

New South Wales

To enrol a patient on the NSW Opioid Treatment Program (OTP), approval from the NSW Ministry of Health is required. A NSW medical practitioner who has not received accreditation as a NSW OTP prescriber may be approved by the Ministry of Health to prescribe methadone for up to ten (10) patients who are being transferred from an accredited prescriber. Unaccredited medical practitioners cannot initiate patients on methadone. With buprenorphine or buprenorphine-naloxone, unaccredited medical practitioners may be approved to initiate or prescribe for up to twenty (20) buprenorphine or buprenorphine-naloxone patients. The total number of patients that an unaccredited prescriber may obtain approval to prescribe for, at any one time, is thirty (30) with a maximum of 10 of these patients being for methadone. Accredited nurse practitioners can prescribe methadone, buprenorphine and buprenorphine-naloxone under the OTP. To participate in the NSW OTP, community pharmacies must register with the Ministry of Health and comply with the protocol for community pharmacy dosing points issued by the Ministry.

For more information, see:

• NSW Clinical Guidelines: Treatment of Opioid Dependence (full version)
• NSW Clinical Guidelines: Treatment of Opioid Dependence - Abbreviated Version (abbreviated version)
• Long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) for opioid dependence treatment

Victoria

The Victorian Pharmacotherapy Program is a community-based system of Medical Practitioners, Nurse Practitioners (with relevant notation) and Pharmacists. Permits are issued by the Department of Health under the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Regulations 2017. 

Medically Assisted Treatment for Opioid Dependence (MATOD) training is recommended for all pharmacotherapy practitioners. A practitioner is authorised to prescribe Buprenorphine/Naloxone and Long-Acting Injectable Buprenorphine (LAIB) for up to 10 patients without undergoing MATOD training. Approval from the Department of Health is required for more than 10 patients. 

SafeScript, introduced in April 2020, is a mandatory recording system for all General Practitioners and Pharmacists that monitors most drugs of dependence, including all Schedule 8 medicines such as Buprenorphine. 

For more information, see:

• Policy for maintenance pharmacotherapy for opioid dependence
• Pharmacotherapy policy addendum – Long-acting injectable buprenorphine
• Long-acting injectable buprenorphine – brief clinical guidelines.

Queensland

The Queensland Opioid Treatment Program is essentially community based, other than for inpatients in hospitals and correctional facilities. Prescribers undertake training provided by Queensland Health, and Queensland Health provides approval to commence prescribing on successful completion of the training program. Prescriber training is provided for all pharmacotherapies currently available.

No approval is required for community pharmacies to supply opioid treatment drugs, as this is within the endorsement of registered pharmacists.

For more information, see Queensland Opioid Treatment Program | Queensland Health.

Western Australia

The Western Australian pharmacotherapy program is community‑based, other than inpatients in hospitals, prisons and the public clinic. Prescribers attend training provided by the Mental Health Commission (MHC) and the Chief Executive Officer of Health provides authorisation under the Medicines and Poisons Regulations 2016, the legislative instrument. Prescriber training is provided for all pharmacotherapies currently available. The Buprenorphine online training module is available for practitioners wishing to prescribe all buprenorphine formulations. Methadone training is provided separately as a face-to-face training module.

Community pharmacies are authorised to participate in the Community Program for Opioid Pharmacotherapy (CPOP) after completing the Pharmacist online training. The Pharmacist with overall responsibility is required to ensure that all pharmacists dosing clients have completed the Pharmacist online training module on the MHC website. The Pharmacist online training module covers all formulations of opioid substitution treatment as well as depot buprenorphine administration by pharmacists). For more information, see:

• Western Australian Community Program for Opioid Pharmacotherapy (CPOP): clinical policies and procedures for the use of methadone and buprenorphine in the treatment of opioid dependence—3rd Edition
• Clinical Guidelines for the use of depot buprenorphine in Western Australia
• MP 0139/20 Medicines Handling Policy
• Guideline on continuation of opioid substitution treatment in hospitals.

South Australia

All medical practitioners and nurse practitioners (within their scope of practice) can prescribe buprenorphine-naloxone film to treat opioid drug dependence for up to 10 patients, without completing specialised MATOD training. A medical practitioner must become accredited to treat more than 10 patients or to prescribe methadone liquid or buprenorphine as a single agent. Authorisation under the Controlled Substances Act 1984 must be obtained prior to prescribing any pharmacotherapy to treat opioid drug dependence.

For more information, see Medication assisted treatment for opioid dependence (MATOD).

Tasmania

In Tasmania, pharmacotherapy training is provided separately for each pharmacotherapy drug.

For more information, see Tasmanian Opioid Pharmacotherapy Policy and Clinical Practice Standards.

Australian Capital Territory

To prescribe methadone or buprenorphine/buprenorphine + naloxone for Opioid Dependence in the ACT, a Chief Health Officer (CHO) approval is required. Any medical practitioner may prescribe opioid dependency treatment for up to 5 patients at any one time, provided the patient was inducted and stabilised on treatment by an endorsed prescriber. To induct a patient onto the program, or to maintain treatment of more than 5 patients, a medical practitioner must apply to become an endorsed prescriber under the Medicines, Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 2008. Endorsed prescribers are required to undertake refresher training provided by Canberra Health Services every 5 years to maintain their endorsement.

All pharmacists intending to provide Opioid Dependency Treatment services at a community pharmacy must apply for an Opioid Dependency Treatment Centre licence. Pharmacists providing the service under the licence must undertake refresher training provided by Canberra Health Services every 5 years.

All prescribing and dispensing of opioid dependency treatment must be in accordance with the National Guidelines for Medication-Assisted Treatment of Opioid Dependence and the Opioid Maintenance Treatment in the ACT: Local Policies and Procedures.

For more information, see Opioid Maintenance Treatment in the ACT: Local Policies and Procedures.

Northern Territory

All opioid substitution treatment prescribers are required to undergo pharmacotherapy training. Accredited prescribers must complete an ‘Application for authority to prescribe a restricted Schedule 8 substance for the treatment of addiction’ for each and submit the form to Northern Territory Health, Medicines and Poisons. The application information is recorded in NTScript. The prescriber is not permitted to prescribe until they receive a signed authorisation document. The prescriber must notify Medicines and Poisons within 14 days of cessation of treatment.

For more information, see Medical practitioners and schedule 8 medicines.

New South Wales

The SafeScript NSW system is used in the administration of the New South Wales Opioid Treatment Program. It replaced the legacy Electronic Recording and Reporting of Controlled Drugs system in May 2023. The ERRCD system is used to record authorisations (or ‘approvals’) to prescribe as part of the New South Wales Opioid Treatment Program. It also records client admissions to, and exits from, treatment, as well as details of prescribers and dosing points. For these reasons, the SafeScript NSW system is characterised by continual fluctuations and data extracted at different times for the same period may not be the same. However, while delays in reporting entries to the program, exits from the program and changes in the status of dosing points cause short-term fluctuations in the database, these flatten out over time.

Data relating to prescribed buprenorphine-naloxone and buprenorphine LAI are based on the drug (formulation) nominated by the prescriber at the time of submitting an application for approval. The approval issued allows the prescriber to change to a different buprenorphine formulation at any time.

Data on prescribers refer to prescribers who were treating at least 1 client on the snapshot day. Data on dosing point sites relate to sites that had at least 1 client receiving treatment on the snapshot day.

Victoria

Victorian NOPSAD data is collected from 2 sources on the snapshot day of 30 June: a yearly census of Pharmacists and Correctional Facilities, who are requested to report the number and demographics of clients being dosed; and the permit database, Drugs and Poisons Information System (DAPIS), which records information about Medical Practitioners authorised to prescribe pharmacotherapy drugs, as well as demographic information about clients accessing pharmacotherapy treatment.

Queensland

Dispensing records for opioid pharmacotherapy medicines are automatically collected via Queensland’s real-time prescription monitoring system, QScript (unless the medicine was dispensed in a public sector hospital). Data are also collected from administrative ‘admission’ and ‘discharge’ forms. Queensland totals may vary slightly due to these data source differences. For example, a client may be counted as registered and considered in treatment on the snapshot day, but a dosing point might not be able to be assigned because the client was not actually dosing. Client data are reported in Queensland on a snapshot day in June.

Limitations of the underlying data model relied upon to produce Queensland’s NOPSAD submission presented methodological challenges which may have impacted data accuracy for some tables.

In 2025, Queensland implemented a new methodology for sourcing and mapping ‘Prescriber type’ and ‘Dosing point site type’. Consequently, the 2025 tables using these data items may differ significantly from previous years and should not be directly compared across reporting periods.

Due to changes in the real-time prescription monitoring national data exchange data model, Queensland was unable to provide data on opioid drug of dependence for 2025.

Data for Queensland were not available for 2021. For more information, see Data coverage.

Western Australia

Data for oral formulations of opioid substitution treatment are collected from the monthly reports received from pharmacies and other dosing sites authorised to participate in the Community Program for Opioid Pharmacotherapy (CPOP). The dosing data are entered into the Medicines and Poisons Regulation Branch’s Electronic Recording and Reporting of Controlled Drugs (ERRCD) database. Depot buprenorphine formulations are reported from dispensing transactions. Data are also collected from the ‘Application for authority’, ‘Authority to prescribe’ and ‘Termination of treatment’ forms. The number of clients receiving pharmacotherapy treatment is reported through the month of June.

The total number of prescribers usually includes those treating at least 1 client as at 30 June 2018 in private practice, public clinics and correctional facilities.

In Western Australia, data relating to the Indigenous status of clients is now being collected from new ‘Application to prescribe opioid substitution treatment’ forms but not at the time of renewal for patients continuing in treatment.

Client data are usually reported in Western Australia for the entire month of June. Specifically, pharmacies supply information at the end of June relating to the last dose supplied to the patient for the month of June. If a patient changes pharmacies mid-month, it is possible that they appear on more than 1 pharmacy’s monthly transaction reports and are counted more than once.

Before 2005, Western Australia reported clients over a year.

see Data coverage.

South Australia

Data are collected from the ‘Authority Application MATOD Program (Medication Assisted Treatment for Opioid Dependence) form, which historically was manually entered into a central database system at the Drugs of Dependence Unit (DDU), SA Health. 

As of 1 July 2021, prescribers may also submit this information directly into the central database via the ScriptCheckSA Health Practitioner portal.

Since 1 November 2020, both the prescribing data and the information from dispensed prescriptions has been collected electronically in real time, through ScriptCheckSA from integrated practices and pharmacies.

From 2011, data have been collected via a half-yearly survey that pharmacists completed and reported on a snapshot day in June. From 2014, this survey has been conducted annually. From 2025, this survey is no longer conducted. Client data is now collected via dispensing records in ScriptCheckSA for the month of June. This may capture patients who had discontinued treatment in June however may not capture the patients who dosed in June but did not have a dispensing record in ScriptCheckSA.

In South Australia, data relating to prescribers refer to prescribers who were treating at least 1 client in June.

Tasmania

Data are collected monthly from all pharmacies participating in the Tasmanian Opioid Pharmacotherapy Program (TOPP) and entered into the Drugs and Poisons Information System (DAPIS). This system is administered by the Pharmaceutical Services Branch (PSB) and manages client registration, dosing activity, dosing sites, authority to prescribe and dispensing information relating to drugs of high potential for harm. The system also makes available limited information to relevant medical practitioners and pharmacists, both within and external to the Department to assist safe treatment of patients requiring drugs that are highly addictive.

Data from DAPIS are made available for management style reporting from a Qlikview-based intranet dashboard.

Client data in Tasmania are reported from a snapshot for the month of June. However, clients are counted only once—if they change dosing point site during the month, the dosing point site that administered the greater number of doses is attributed the activity.

Data on prescribers refer to prescribers who were treating at least 1 client during the month of June.

Australian Capital Territory

Client participation data are collected manually via Canberra Health Services, Alcohol and Drug Services’ program spreadsheets, and from Medication Administration Chart (MAC) Sheets which the community pharmacies submit each month. Client participation data are also collected via iDose which is a Canberra Health Service and Justice Health database that contains client dosing information in real time. General practitioner and pharmacy participation data are also collated from the MAC Sheets.

Northern Territory

Data are generated from the current active authorisations in NTScript on the snapshot day in June. The data are audited against current Schedule 8 prescription data also within NTScript.