The 2014 figures formed part of the data underlying the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare's June report on Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia – the first of its kind to look nationally at the issue.

Hospital participation in the study was voluntary and Fairfax Media understands the ACT's figures were aggregated from data provided by Calvary Private and Calvary Public hospitals, with no information provided for Canberra Hospital in Woden.

The data showed the two Calvary hospitals had a combined 31.4 per cent "non-compliant with [national] guidelines" rate and a 33 per cent "inappropriate" prescribing rate in both hospitals – ratings 5 per cent and 8 per cent above the next highest rating recorded in the report, respectively.

That compared with figures showing the nation's other jurisdictions had non-compliance rates of between 21 per cent and 26 per cent and "inappropriate" prescribing rates between 19 per cent 25 per cent.

Australian researchers remained concerned at high rates of antibiotic use in Australia in both hospitals and general practice surgeries, due to the potential for "super bugs" to emerge that are resistant to commonly used drugs.

A spokesman for Calvary Public Hospital said since the 2014 figures were released, the hospital had "enhanced" its internal clinical policies and guidelines and assigned "in-house dedicated medical and pharmaceutical expertise to antimicrobial stewardship".

"The as-yet unpublished 2015 survey reveals Calvary has experienced a small but significant reduction in non-compliant therapy, and a marked increase in the appropriateness of therapy used," the spokesman said.

A spokesman for Calvary Private Hospital did not comment on the report's findings.

Fairfax Media understands the unpublished 2015 figures at Calvary Public amounted to about a 2 per cent fall in its "non-compliant" antibiotic prescribing rate and a 12 per cent fall in the hospital's "inappropriate" prescribing rate, from 2014 to 2015.

The commission's senior medical adviser, Professor John Turnidge, said both non-compliant and inappropriate prescribing could be down to several factors including which drug was prescribed to a particular patient, how broad the antibiotic was and the dosage, duration and frequency of use.

Professor Turnidge said one of the "biggest mysteries" of antibiotic prescribing in Australia was a "culture of doctors prescribing and patients accepting antibiotics", particularly for viruses, which antibiotics cannot address.

"We're talking about 70 years of behaviour that's built up over that period of time. It seems to be patient expectation that's a very strong driver, but also GPs and doctors willing to prescribe," he said.

The data in the commission's report does not specify which particular issue was responsible for the ACT's higher rates.

Professor of infectious diseases at the Australian National University Medical School, Peter Collignon, has been involved in antibiotic research and medicine for 30 years.

He said the ACT had a lower overall rate of antibiotic prescribing compared to other states and territories, but that across the nation and the ACT, "we need to improve our game".

Professor Collignon said antibiotic resistance was rising internationally and there was no "white horse" to solve the problem.

"We have to protect what we've got and start using what we've got more wisely," he said.

"We're in a country with low levels of [antibiotic] resistance, but we need to keep it that way. I think in fact we need to halve the amount of antibiotic use in Australia if we're going to avoid major resistance in the future," Professor Collignon said.

"We don't want our children dying from untreatable infections because we didn't get our act together."