The service has its benefits, says Chemist Warehouse Warrnambool owner Jason Yacoub, but it was temporarily unavailable on Wednesday.

An internet outage meant customers were unable to use the service for a short period of time.

Mr Yacoub said he believed there needed to be a back-up option for customers in case this happened in the future.

"One of the disadvantages is that it is vulnerable to internet outages," he said.

"It's also difficult for people who aren't tech savvy."

Mr Yacoub said there were only a few people who were using it, which meant there weren't too many customers who had to wait for their prescription.

"These days everything relies on the internet, but overall it's a good thing," he said.

"In this day and age it's not necessary to have so much paperwork."

Mr Yacoub said a small number of people had made the switch but he expected more to jump onboard as time went on.

There are two proposed systems available for accessing electronic prescriptions.

Under the first model, a doctor will write an electronic prescription and then send a unique barcode known as a 'token' via an app, SMS or email.

The code is like a 'key' to the legal electronic document sitting in the secure Prescription Delivery Service.

Patients will then need to show the code to their pharmacist to get their prescription, either on their smartphone or printed out.

Family members or agents can collect medicines on behalf of the patient but they need to personally be sent the QR code, which can only be sent once.

The second model is called the Active Script List, which sees prescriptions held in a secure Prescription Delivery Service, then accessed by a patient after they have proved their identity at a pharmacy of their choice.

That model aims to overcome the issue of lost tokens and assist with medication management.

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