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eScripts — how electronic prescribing works, and how to issue one
Source: Australian Digital Health Agency — Electronic prescribing: For prescribers. Verified June 2026 (page fundamentals unchanged since 2024 implementation). General information for clinicians — not clinical or legal advice. Confirm your software’s conformance with your provider, and check current rules with the Digital Health Agency and your State or Territory health department, particularly for controlled medicines.
Electronic prescriptions (eScripts) are now routine in Australian general practice — more than 219 million issued since May 2020. If you are new to prescribing here, this walks through the two ways an eScript reaches the pharmacy and what you actually do. For IMGs, registrars and any new prescriber.
What you need set up to issue eScripts
- Conformant clinical software. Electronic prescribing (and ASL) capability has to be built into your clinical information system — check your product is conformant with your software provider.
- Your prescriber number — the same one you use on paper PBS scripts. Nothing additional is required to prescribe electronically.
- The same prescription rules apply as for paper. An eScript is just a different delivery method, not a different set of rules.
The things new prescribers get wrong
- Paper OR electronic — not both. The patient chooses one delivery method for a given prescription; they cannot hold a paper copy and an electronic copy of the same script.
- The token is not the legal prescription. The token (the SMS or email link) is evidence of a prescription; the electronic record is the legal script. Once a token is scanned and dispensed, it becomes invalid and cannot be reused.
- No double-dispensing. The prescription locks the moment a pharmacy accesses it, so two pharmacies cannot dispense the same script at once.
- If you issue a barcoded paper script instead, the patient must physically bring that paper copy to the pharmacy to be dispensed.
Controlled drugs (S8) and state rules
The same regulations apply to electronic and paper prescriptions — the National Health Act 1953 and the relevant State or Territory legislation. This matters most for controlled medicines: an S8 can be prescribed electronically, but your jurisdiction’s drugs-of-dependence rules and Real-Time Prescription Monitoring still apply. Contact your jurisdiction’s health department if unsure.
Free training — CPD-accredited modules
The Australian Digital Health Agency runs free, CPD-accredited eLearning modules and webinars for prescribers on what an eScript is, how it is prescribed and dispensed, the ASL, and the legislation behind it. A useful starting point if electronic prescribing is new to you — search “electronic prescribing” on the Digital Health Agency’s training pages.
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PBS restriction levels →What “Authority Required (STREAMLINED)” and the other labels mean — the companion to this for a new prescriber.