Can’t get to the pharmacy? New app allows you to order prescriptions online

Can’t make it to your local pharmacy? Stuck in lockdown, live regionally or are too sick to go out? Well, we’ve got some good news for you as a new Australian app that allows you to order prescriptions online has gotten some attention recently — and it’s supposedly as easy as ordering a meal from Uber Eats!

Launched in July this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Medmate is a secure app designed by Australian doctors and pharmacists to help Aussies get their hands on medication they need without having to make a trip up to their local pharmacy — and it’s the first of its kind! Not to mention, the service is free.

“Medmate is the first app in Australia that is able to process prescriptions electronically for home medicine delivery,” Dr Ganesh Naidoo, CEO of Medmate, said.

“Our platform allows patients to order medications and general pharmacy items from their chosen pharmacy listed in the app without ever needing to leave home. The service is free for patients and medication prices are matched, or similar, to major discount chemists with many pharmacies offering free delivery to their local patients.”

Dr Naidoo said it’s great for people who live in regional or isolated areas, those who are too unwell to travel or are simply too busy, adding: “Medmate cuts out all the inconveniences that go with filling scripts.”

He said with telehealth services becoming more and more popular across the country, it only makes sense to introduce something like this now.

“Other medication management apps still require you to visit a pharmacy to drop off paper scripts,” Dr Naidoo explained. “With Medmate, that step is entirely removed, saving you time and further breaking down the barriers to medication adherence.

“When the pandemic began, we saw the need for script fulfillment and dispensing to rapidly transform in line with the changing times. We wanted to ensure people could get access to the medications they needed, from their preferred healthcare providers, while feeling safe and secure.”

The app also allows users to book face-to-face or telehealth doctor appointments to get scripts, order medications from a local pharmacy, track medications with reminders and automatic script refiling, manage medications for family members and download e-referrals for services such as pathology and radiology.

To date, the Australian health-tech start-up has partnered with 1,070 GP clinics and approximately 5,000 prescribers in Victoria and is trialing the technology in six Melbourne suburbs before being rolled out nationally.