In the 12 months before his death, he saw 22 different doctors and obtained 75 scripts for benzodiazepines and drugs containing opioids.

During the inquest into his 2012 death from multi-drug toxicity, an independent expert observed he had "worked out a system that enabled him to obtain the medicines that he was looking for, without actually triggering alarm bells for anybody".

Although doctors and pharmacists keep their own records, no states or territories outside Tasmania have centralised electronic systems that capture in real time which controlled drugs have been prescribed and dispensed to individual patients.

Urged by coroners around Australia, a coalition of medicine, pharmacy and consumer organisations has now written to state and territory ministers and the federal health minister calling for a real-time prescription monitoring system, in a bid to contain the rising number of deaths from powerful medications prescribed for pain or anxiety.

Signatories including the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Consumers Health Forum have called for the system to be made an "urgent priority".

"This roll-out has been extremely slow due to a range of technical, legal, financial and administrative issues," the letter said.

"At the same time, coroners in jurisdictions around Australia have repeatedly called for the urgent implementation of a real-time prescription monitoring system, as overdoses involving prescription medicines continue to occur at an alarming rate."

Prescription opioids were responsible 80 per cent of overdose admissions in 2007-08, and caused 705 deaths in 2010.

Medical Software Industry Association chief executive Bridget Kirkham​, who also signed the letter, said the software specifications were ready and available and only needed to be implemented.

"We just see this as low-hanging fruit which every government can do to make life safer for Australians," Ms Kirkham said.

"We need the states and territories to decide to do it."

Pharmacy Guild of Australia chairman George Tambassis​ said all jurisdictions were supportive of the measure, but it had not been resourced to go the next step.

"There are patients that are getting around the current system," Mr Tambassis said.

"The coroners for years have been urging to do this. They are saying this will definitely stop deaths."

The Therapeutic Goods Administration last week recommended that codeine products including Nurofen Plus and Panadeine be moved to prescription only to curb high levels of abuse and addiction.

In the United States, prescription drug deaths now outnumber those attributable to car accidents.

Mr Attard's death was investigated by NSW Coroner Carmel Forbes among three unrelated deaths due to prescription medication and doctor shopping in 2014.

Ms Forbes said: "Mr Attard's story highlights the need for a real-time prescribing system that would enable a doctor to determine whether a patient had recently been prescribed an addictive drug. Access to this information would mean health professionals could make informed and better decisions.

"None of the doctors who gave evidence said they would have prescribed in the same way if they were aware of the true clinical picture."

A NSW Health spokeswoman said stage one of the electronic recording and reporting project was nearly completed and then the department would consider real-time prescription monitoring.