SafeScript, the computer system meant to alert GPs to doctor-shopping patients, was described last month as “either not working as intended, or not being used”. 

Victorian Coroner Audrey Jamieson reached this conclusion after investigating the death of Bradley Liefvoort, who fatally overdosed on tapentadol and oxycodone after receiving almost 3000 tablets over six months. 

He triggered 77 red flags in SafeScript, but the 14 doctors who prescribe to him only checked the system a total of six times, the coroner found. 

Professor Suzanne Nielsen, deputy director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre in Melbourne, has studied SafeScript and its impact on prescribing.