Infection outbreak signs have been erected outside the emergency department at Cork University Hospital. No visitors are allowed into the busy unit.

A new pilot study of doctor visits has shown that the average duration of a consultation was 14.1 minutes, and that patients had an average time between consultations of 99 days.

The restrictions apply to Cork University Hospital, Bantry General Hospital, Mallow General Hospital and Mercy University Hospital.

An RTÉ investigation has revealed that Senator Keith Swanick did not vote in three quarters of Seanad votes where he was recorded as being in Leinster House in Dublin.

I write in relation to the letter from Dr Frank Davey, Laytown, Co Meath in the national media where he wrote about the tinkering with the GP service.

The door closed today in Mardyke Street and the best-known medic in Irish sport finally put his feet up.

New figures from the HSE show the majority are aged between 15 and 24-years-old.

Doctors have six months to change how they prescribe anxiety and sleeping medicine to avoid disciplinary action by the Medical Council.

The HSE’s assistant national director for public health is urging anyone who has not been vaccinated for mumps and measles to go to their GP for a free vaccination.

The widow of a man who died of a heart attack twelve days after it was claimed he presented to his GP complaining of chest pain has settled her High Court action over his death.

The Margiotta family are entitled to the truth and it is in everyone’s interest that the whole investigation is completed expeditiously, writes Michael Clifford.

They didn’t vote for the trebling of abortions, for the refusal of pain relief for babies, nor for the proviso that doctors who refuse to comply must refer the mother on to one who will, writes Cora Sherlock.

The civilian Garda employee who was prosecuted over sick notes has called for a full inquiry into how she and her GP brother were investigated and brought to court.

Having grown up in the culinary institution that is Ballymaloe, Formula 4 racing driver Lucca Allen might have been pre-destined towards a kitchen apron than the car racing attire he dons nowadays. With no family ties to the world of motor racing, the 16-year-old son of Darina Allen jettisoned football, hockey, and rugby for the allure of the race track.

The evidence of Garda Commissioner Drew Harris before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) earlier this month about the controversial prosecution of a civilian Garda employee, has raised some serious questions.

There have been 6,000 calls to the HSE’s crisis pregnancy helpline since abortion was legalised in Ireland.

The HSE has welcomed the agreement on GP contractual reforms involving the Department of Health, the HSE and the Irish Medical Organisation.

The Irish Medical Organisation has announced a €210m Government deal for general practice after long-running talks with the Department of Health.

My dad fell and hurt his hip, not an uncommon occurrence for a frail 82-year-old. He didn't want a fuss, he didn't want to go to the doctor. “It'll be fine,” he insisted, but I wouldn't take no for an answer, writes David Forsyth

The Irish Refugee Council has called on Health Minister Simon Harris to put in place special measures for women in direct provision who wish to seek abortion services.

A leading GP group is seeking an immediate meeting with HSE officials over the deepening cervical cancer tests crisis, due to widespread concern among its members over the number of tests being sent back because they have expired.

“Sorry, your relative died on a waiting list before their appointment came around.”

An “aggressive and unfair” validation of outpatient lists has been used to achieve a reduction in figures, a GP group claims.

People could be missing out on life-saving early cancer treatment by not visiting their doctor sooner, the Irish Cancer Society has warned.

Prior to legislation, the Government must take time for research and consultation on contraception and abortion services, says Claire McCarthy IT is more than three weeks since

The association representing the bulk of the country’s GPs is holding an extraordinary general meeting tomorrow against a backdrop of no engagement with the Department of Health on how it plans to roll out a doctor-led abortion service.

Unborn children will still be protected in Irish law even if the Eighth Amendment is repealed, the Cabinet has been told.

Large swathes of the country are going to be left without any GP if supports are not given to doctors, according to the Irish College of General Practitioners.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has declined to publicly back official plans to repeal the Eighth Amendment, allow unrestricted abortion access up to 12 weeks and other law changes, until he meets Fine Gael colleagues in January.

Primary care teams developed by the HSE throughout the country have been deemed “a failed initiative” by the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP).

Investing in primary care leads to better health outcomes at lower costs, a new report from the HSE confirms.

An urgent call for O negative blood donors has been made by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service after supplies dwindled to just four days because of the loss of a full day’s collection due to Storm Ophelia.

Medics say it will take a couple of days to get back to normal services following Ophelia.

How many businesses can survive a drop in payments of 35%-40% from the main purchaser of its services? asks Dr Catherine O’Donohoe.  

A number of doctors involved in the clinical validation of an IT system that cost €35m and has so far accrued around €1m in additional consultancy fees said it has had “a positive impact on the hospitals who have deployed it”.

A €35m IT system designed to improve care for mothers and babies and cut down on paperwork has created more work for staff and more room for error because of a failure to link it up with GP IT systems.

A €35m ‘landmark’ IT system to record maternal and newborn care has struggled to live up to its billing, writes Catherine Shanahan Health Correspondent    

Family doctors in Galway have been told by the laboratory manager at Galway University Hospitals not to refer patients for blood tests on the grounds that they do not provide a phlebotomy service for GPs.

Almost 1,000 people have signed a petition to help a Ring of Kerry village secure a doctor. A continuing GP service in Sneem and its surrounding area is at risk, with the village doctor, Patrick Malone, due to retire after 34 years.

5.45am: I’m an early riser and weather permitting, I like to squeeze in a run. 

Out-of-hours doctors’ co-ops will collapse if the proposal to roll out free GP care to all in the next five years is followed through, the chair of the Irish Association of GP Co-operatives has warned, writes Catherine Shanahan.