Albury's Terry White Chemmart welcomes paperless prescriptions

Terry White Chemmart Albury pharmacist Lead Davidson said doctors could now issue electronic scripts by sending a patient a unique QR barcode, or 'token' which was then scanned by pharmacists before medication was dispensed.

Under the scheme a 'token' is required for each prescription and multiple medications cannot be on the same code.

Mrs Davidson said the introduction of the new technology came at a great time as many doctor appointments were occurring via telehealth so it was convenient for patients to receive the script electronically.

"Most doctors think it's great," she said.

"It reduced postage costs because most doctors are working remotely with telehealth and won't have to post prescriptions anymore."

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Paperless prescription were first trialled four months ago in part of Victoria but has now been rolled out across the entire country.

Last week Mrs Davidson said the pharmacy had dispensed about 15 eScripts so far with more people using them each week.

"We're really excited about the change and reducing our (paper) footprint," she said.

"There's lots and lots of paperwork in pharmacies so it will make a big difference."

Mrs Davidson said some restricted drugs still require a hard copy prescription for legal reasons.

But, she said, the paperless system could potentially cut down on people trying to fraudulently alter scripts.

There is no plan to make paperless prescriptions mandatory, with their use entirely up to patients and doctors. Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme has set down strict guidelines that electronic and paper prescriptions are to co-exist.

"You're not going to be forced not to have a normal scripts," Mrs Davidson reassured customers.

A second paperless prescription model called the Active Script List is due to launch later this year.

Under this model in which electronic scripts are held in a 'secure Prescription Delivery Service' and instead of using individual 'tokens' per medication, residents can access all scripts by proving their identity at the pharmacy.