GPs have voted in favour of accepting a €210m deal with the Government which will see substantial investment in general practice over the next four years.

The National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) has failed to clarify what progress has been made in relation to new governance structures recommended by an independent review.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and not the Department of Health, is dictating the delivery of healthcare in Ireland, according to the outgoing president of the Irish Medical Organisation.

The commotion around a helpline that didn’t work; a distrust of the HSE’s ability to supply reliable data; and a preoccupation with media coverage of the CervicalCheck crisis are themes in a series of revealing texts between the health minister and his most senior adviser (the texts have been obtained through Freedom of Information).

As the health service was engulfed by the scandal over the CervicalCheck screening programme, top medics and officials wanted that there wasn’t capacity to deal with the crisis while also maintaining the service’s normal operation, writes Health Correspondent Catherine Shanahan.

The impact on tens of thousands of patients of escalating unrest in the health service continues today with members of the public asked not to use out of hours GP services as hundreds of family doctors gather in Dublin for a protest.

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.

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

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.

The National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) has had to defend its financial position amid concerns about its ongoing viability.

New hospitals and up to 9,000 beds are needed to reduce overcrowding and waiting lists, according to the Government's bed capacity review.

GPs who have been attacked must be given the power to transfer dangerous patients to secure designated public health facilities, instead of seeing their care moved onto another doctor’s practice, a health union has warned.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has delivered his Budget 2018 speech. We’ll bring you the main reaction from special-interest groups and others.

They’ve enjoyed romantic dinners, hand-in-hand walks and many special times together during their 43 years of marriage. Now, they can add hip replacements to the list.

There are over 700 beds available if the HSE wants to discharge elderly patients from acute hospitals into nursing home beds.

The Irish Medical organisation has said GPs feel “taken for granted” in a wrangle which threatens to delay the start of a new programme of vaccinations due to begin in December.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Debt-burdened medical graduates are shunning general practice because the starting salary is too low.

Single-practice GPs are struggling to find locums, so it is difficult for them take summer holidays.

The number of children aged under six referred to emergency departments (ED) by their doctor has jumped dramatically, and as much as 55% at one large GP co-op, according to its medical director.

The next government will inherit “a crisis of enormous proportions” in the health services, doctors have warned.

GPs have called for 24-hour access to diagnostic facilities as an urgent and essential first step in easing pressure on hospital emergency departments (EDs).

Clodagh Finn ponders if the work/life balance is a myth in a world where technology has blurred the lines between business and pleasure

The National Association of General Practitioners has claimed the “vast, vast majority” of GPs around the country who have signed the contract to provide free care for under-6s have done so “under duress”.

Large swathes of the country will not have access to the free GP care for under sixes, it has emerged.

Ahead of today’s deadline for family doctors to sign up to free care for under-sixes, Health Minister Leo Varadkar and his junior minister Kathleen Lynch yesterday wrote to GPs to clarify issues around the scheme and tell those who have not signed the contract that it is not too late to do so.

The Irish Medical Organisation says key concerns it raised over free GP care for under sixes have been “comprehensively dealt” with by the HSE and the Department of Health.

A medical doctor has launched a High Court action against the HSE arising out of its plans to provide free GP services to children under six years of age.

GPs have just received the new contract governing care of under sixes. It has been described as sweet and sour. It gives a cash injection to practices that are in financial difficulty after disproportionate FEMPI cuts but does not give back grants that will allow rural practice to survive.

Doctors have warned Leo Varadkar his plan for free GP care for under-sixes “will not happen” unless he meets with the National Association of General Practitioners and sort out certain issues.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar’s plan to make GP visits free for under-6s by this summer is facing a major stumbling block after a leading GP group said it will oppose the “medical apartheid” move.

Doctors agreed a deal allowing free GP care for under-6s after the Government increased its payment by €30m to €67m — an 81% increase, it emerged yesterday.

Reports that GPs are expected to be offered around €100 a year per child under the Government’s plans to provide free GP care to children under six years of age have been dismissed by the Department of Health.

People will have to travel further and wait longer for an appointment with a GP in rural areas, as more practices are abandoned, a doctors’ group has warned.

A new survey indicates the vast majority of doctors will refuse to sign up for free GP care scheme for children under six.

The introduction of free GP care for children under six should be put on hold in favour of widening medical card access to those most in need, a representative body has said.

GPs have claimed the HSE’s system for allowing them to reinstate medical cards is "fundamentally flawed", warning that doctors have been repeatedly blocked from using the alleged two-year-old power.

Plans to reform the medical card system have descended into farce just 24 hours after being unveiled after it was claimed that GPs have been able to reinstate the help since 2012, but never used the power.

Doctors working in emergency medicine have rejected claims that they are sending patients home who should be in hospital.