GPs who want to ditch paper scripts will be able to do so within months, the government says.

The Department of Health says it will finish building a national, paper-free e-prescribing system before the end of 2019, allowing doctors to issue legally valid scripts using their clinical software.

The long-awaited reform was first announced in May last year, when the government earmarked $30 million for paperless prescribing in the 2018 federal budget.

However, it wasn’t immediately clear what the money was funding.