Nursing home staff are pressuring GPs to sedate difficult residents to compensate for inadequate staffing levels, RACGP president Dr Harry Nespolon says.

The misuse of psychotropic drugs is expected to be a key focus of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Safety and Quality, which is having its first public hearings in Adelaide on Friday.

But the blame-game over the prescription of sedatives appears to be already beginning, after Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt publicly chastised doctors at a press conference on Thursday, telling them to stop “stupefying” their patients.

“I just want to say to aged care providers, rethink your approach if you are using chemical and physical restraints, consider the options that the Commonwealth have put into place previously, and work within those,” he told reporters.