Prescription medications would be monitored in real-time under a NSW Labor plan to reduce the number of people dying from overdoses.
State opposition leader Luke Foley on Sunday committed $30 million over four years if elected in 2019 for a tracking system similar to Victoria's 'SafeScript' scheme.
The software will link pharmacies and GP surgeries through a database to stamp out doctor or chemist "shopping" and abuse of prescription drugs that are at high risk of misuse.
It would also alert patients who weren't are they were slipping into addiction.
It follows a report by the NSW coroner in which she called on the state government to urgently consider real-time prescription monitoring, saying it was "frustrating and depressing" that NSW didn't intend to introduce a system until it was being done at a federal level.
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The scheme in Victoria monitors prescriptions of opioids, painkillers, stimulants, tranquillisers, sleeping tablets, anti-psychotics and codeine.
"The Victorian government is leading the way with Australia's first large-scale real-time prescription monitoring system and NSW needs to catch up," Mr Foley said in a statement.
"I urge the NSW government to introduce real-time prescription monitoring. If it doesn't act on this, Labor will if elected in 2019."
