An electronic prescription — an “eScript” — is the digital equivalent of a paper prescription. Instead of a printed script, the prescriber sends you a secure token by SMS or email, or adds the prescription to a list your pharmacy can access. You take it to any pharmacy, they scan it, and you get your medicine. Nothing needs to be posted or picked up, which is exactly why eScripts and telehealth fit together so well.
Here’s how the system works, for patients and clinicians alike.
How an eScript works
When a clinician prescribes electronically, their software creates a legally valid prescription and sends the patient a token — usually a link containing a QR code — by SMS or email (Australian Digital Health Agency). You get a separate token for each medicine prescribed.
One detail worth understanding: the token is not the prescription itself. As the Digital Health Agency puts it, “the token itself is not the legal prescription; however, it is the evidence of a prescription” (Australian Digital Health Agency). The actual prescription sits securely in the national system; the token is your key to it. That’s why forwarding the SMS to your pharmacy is safe to do, and why a lost token can be reissued without losing the prescription.
Electronic prescriptions are now mainstream in Australia — more than 219 million had been issued since they launched in May 2020 (Australian Digital Health Agency).
Two ways to hold your eScripts: token or Active Script List
There are two models. The right one depends on how many medicines you take.
| Token (SMS/email) | Active Script List (ASL) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A separate token sent for each prescription | A single digital list of all your active prescriptions |
| Best for | Occasional or one-off prescriptions | People who take several regular medicines |
| How you use it | Show or forward the token at the pharmacy | The pharmacy accesses your list with your consent |
| Keeping track | You keep each SMS or email | No need to track individual tokens |
The Active Script List is “a token management solution that contains a consolidated list of a patient’s active prescriptions”, so “patients no longer need to keep track of the SMS or email tokens” (Australian Digital Health Agency). For someone on multiple long-term medicines, an ASL removes the risk of losing a token or turning up with the wrong one.
How pharmacy dispensing works
At the pharmacy, dispensing is simple. You “visit the pharmacy of your choice and present your token. They will scan the token, provide you with the medicine and offer professional advice” (Australian Digital Health Agency). If your prescription has repeats, a new token for the next repeat is issued to you after each dispensing, so the cycle continues without paper.
You can also forward your token to the pharmacy ahead of time — handy if you want your medicine ready to collect, or if someone is picking it up for you.
Why eScripts suit telehealth
This is the part that matters for anyone having a telehealth consult. With a paper script, a phone or video appointment creates an awkward last step: the script has to be posted, or the patient has to come in to collect it, which partly defeats the purpose of consulting remotely.
Electronic prescribing removes that step entirely. The government designed it to work with remote care: electronic prescribing “supports digital health services such as telehealth services to ensure continuity of care” (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing), and it “supplements delivery of telehealth services to ensure continuity of patient care” (Australian Digital Health Agency). After a telehealth consult, the token simply arrives on the patient’s phone, and they collect their medicine from any pharmacy.
For telehealth, the eScript is the missing piece that ties the whole thing together from the patient’s side: consult by video, token by text, medicine from the local pharmacy — no paper changes hands and nobody has to drive to the clinic for a slip of paper.
Electronic prescribing also “reduces the risk of lost paper prescriptions” (Australian Digital Health Agency), which is one less thing to go wrong.
What clinicians need to know
For prescribers, issuing an eScript happens inside your existing clinical software — the capability has to be built into your clinical information system, and once it is, the prescription is created and the token sent to the patient without extra steps. The prescription still has to follow every normal rule: it needs to come off the back of a genuine consultation (see prescribing via telehealth), and higher-risk medicines still carry their own controls.
Because the prescription is generated and stored in your clinical system and the national prescription service, your telehealth platform doesn’t touch it at all. That separation is deliberate and healthy: the video tool carries the consultation, and your prescribing, notes and records stay where they belong. MedCall is built to sit in exactly that lane — it does the secure video only, made for Australian clinicians, while your practice software handles the eScript.
Common questions
What if I lose the token? Because the token is only the key to a prescription stored securely in the national system — not the prescription itself — a lost token can be reissued without losing the underlying script.
Can I use different pharmacies? Yes. A token can be taken to any pharmacy you choose, and when a prescription has repeats, a fresh token is issued to you after each dispensing.
Do I have to use eScripts? No — paper prescriptions remain available, and the system is designed around “maintaining patient choice and existing processes” (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing). Talk to your clinician about which suits you.
Are they secure? The token is a key rather than a copy of your medical record, and the prescription data sits in the national prescription service. Treat the token like any other private message and only share it with your pharmacy.
The bottom line
An eScript is just a prescription without the paper: a token by SMS or email, or an entry on your Active Script List, that any pharmacy can scan. It’s legally valid, it can be reissued if lost, and it’s purpose-built to work with remote care — which is why it’s become the natural companion to a telehealth consult. If you’ve had a video appointment and expect a script, ask whether it will come as an eScript, and check the current guidance from the Australian Digital Health Agency if you’re setting up an Active Script List.
Sources & further reading
This article is general information for Australian clinicians and patients and reflects the rules and sources current at the date of publication. It is not medical, legal or billing advice, and it is not a substitute for the official guidance of Services Australia, the Department of Health and Aged Care, AHPRA or your professional college. Always check the primary sources linked above for the current position.
The MedCall Team
MedCall is secure telehealth video software built and run by Telehealth Australia Group, a registered Australian telehealth practice. We write these guides for the clinicians who use MedCall every day.