The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has announced that Victorians will soon have access to a new electronic medicine prescriptions system following the initial rollout of the service in Greater Melbourne.
The Agency said there had been a significant uptake of electronic prescriptions since they were made available across Melbourne in August.
“Nationally, more than 100,000 electronic prescriptions have been written since May when the Australian Digital Health Agency started implementing the new technology as a way to support Australians during COVID-19,” ADHA said.
“If a patient prefers to receive an electronic prescription rather than paper from their doctor, they will receive an SMS or email (which) the patient then sends or takes this to their pharmacy of choice,” it said.
Interim Chief Executive of the Agency, Bettina McMahon said it had held a number of urgent meetings in March when it became apparent that COVID-19 was going to impact significantly on the way Australians received health services.
“We held a number of urgent meetings with technology providers and medical groups,” Ms McMahon said.
“Everyone was enthusiastic to speed up innovation to make prescriptions available electronically and many people worked tirelessly for months to make this happen,” she said.
“From the first electronic prescription in May, we tested the system in over 20 locations across Australia which gave us confidence that we were ready to do this in August across the whole of Melbourne.”
Ms McMahon said electronic prescriptions had always made sense as they were stored securely, were available online and via mobile phone and reduced paperwork while still giving the consumer choice about where they’d fill their prescription.
She said people should check with their pharmacy to make sure they were ready to dispense electronic prescriptions.
