My name is Christy Rodder.
I'm a GP in Beechworth in northeast Victoria, which is a small rural country town and I've been up here for about 15 years practising.
I think the introduction of 60 day prescriptions has been really important.
We used to be able to prescribe a month's worth of medication, sometimes with repeats.
0:16 Now we can write a prescription for 60 days and we can write that prescription for 12 months supply.
There's about 300 medications that are eligible for 60 day prescribing and it all depends on whether that's appropriate for that patient.
Once I started doing 60 day prescribing, it's really easy.
It was just that starting it that I found a little bit tricky.
It's trying to find those couple of extra seconds in a consult to redo a prescription as a 60 day dispensing, which takes a couple more seconds to set U at the start.
But what I know is that if I invest that time at the beginning, it definitely benefits my patients.
And then once you get used to it, it just becomes second nature.
The noticeable difference is that patients are much happier with the ability to have that option of 60 day prescribing.
Many of them now are asking for it because they're aware of it and it just simplifies things for them.
For me, I find that it's reducing the burden of appointments for just prescriptions.
It hasn't changed the way I treat my patients in care for my patients.
It's just another tool that I can use to help make my patients experience of the health system better.