Analysis by number of people who received a prescription
60 Day Prescribing Blog #2
Published on the 19 February 2026
Uptake of 60-day prescribing was higher for cardiovascular and dermatological medicines and lowest for musculoskeletal medicines
For most medicines in Stage 1, 60-day prescriptions accounted for just under a quarter of all scripts after the first year. Uptake of 60-day prescribing for dermatologicals was faster, reaching almost 40% by the end of the first year. However, dermatologicals make up a small proportion of total Stage 1 dispensing. The proportion of people receiving a 60-day prescription for the first time (“incident 60-day prescriptions”) for dermatologicals was about 12% throughout the study period, showing that many people were newly prescribed 60-day prescriptions each month. Incident 60-day prescriptions per month were lower for all the other types of medicines (ATC1 classifications).
Proportion of people receiving 30- or 60-day prescriptions per month by therapeutic category (Stage 1)*
The number of people receiving their first 60-day prescription for cardiovascular medicines peaked 3 months into the policy
First time (incident) 60-day dispensings for cardiovascular medicines peaked 3 months into the policy at 6% of the total dispensing for Stage 1 cardiovascular medicines, before halving to 3% by the end of the first year.
The peak suggests a backlog of people on long-term therapy switching from 30-day to 60-day prescribing.
The increasing proportion of individuals continuing on 60-day prescriptions signals that people are staying on 60DD once they start.
Proportion of people receiving 30- or 60-day prescriptions per month, cardiovascular medicines (Stage 1)*
In Stage 1, most people commencing their first 60-day prescription were only dispensed one 60-day medicine that month
Of people who received their first 60-day prescription each month, about:
- Three in four (75%) were dispensed one 60-day medicine that month
- One in five (20%) were dispensed two 60-day medicines that month
- One in 20 (5%) were dispensed three 60-day medicines that month
Proportion of people receiving different numbers of 60-day prescriptions each month (Stage 1)*
Data acknowledgment
We thank the Australian Government Services Australia for providing the data.