At her National Press Club address this month, AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen likened the Australian health system to a house in disrepair, where “renovation attempts” like pharmacy prescribing and Medicare urgent care clinics were creating more cracks.

As an illustration, she told the story of her own patient whose increasing dyspnoea was dismissed by an urgent care clinic as asthma, but later diagnosed as cancer.

Here, she explains why she is worried.

Last week I stood in front of a sold-out house at the National Press Club of Australia — a stage frequented by prime ministers and other luminaries, with the audience in the room made up of key decision-makers.