An extra 100 medicines, including for treatment of asthma, depression, glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease, have been added to the federal government’s 60-day prescription scheme.

Introduced last September in a bid to make it easier and cheaper for Australians to access many vital medicines, the third and final stage of the scheme’s rollout came into effect yesterday, with about 300 medicines now available as 60-day prescriptions.

The government is now encouraging Australians to talk to their GP, nurse practitioner, or other health professional, to find out if their medicine is available for 60-day prescriptions under the program.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday in Adelaide, Health Minister Mark Butler said there had already been more than 10 million 60-day scripts issued for a range of common conditions like hypertension, high cholesterol, and various cancers, in the past year. The program has effectively allowed people to get “twice the medicines for the cost of a single script”, he said.

“Cutting the price of medicines is not just good for people’s hip pocket, we know it’s good for their health as well,” Minister Butler said.

“I’ve had pharmacists tell me of their customers coming in with potentially three or four or five scripts that they fill for themselves and their families and asking for advice about which ones are most important because they can’t afford to fill every single one of them.”

The full list of medicines eligible for a 60-day prescription can be viewed here