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.

Love Both has set out a list of principles which should be included in abortion legislation including a ban on the sale of foetal remains.

GPs will meet tomorrow to discuss their concerns in the wake of the abortion referendum.

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.

There were 649 patients on trolleys in emergency departments or on wards waiting for a hospital bed yesterday, a decrease of just 65 on Monday’s record high of 714.

This story has been subject to the following update:

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.

The National Association of General Practitioners has called on the Government to reverse FEMPI.

The financing of care has to change, writes Dr Tom O’Connor

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

The Health Service Executive’s €14bn budget is unlikely to make any serious headway in alleviating difficulties in the health service, Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman Billy Kelleher claimed yesterday.

Minister for Health Simon Harris has said that the number of patients on waiting lists for the longest period has begun to decline.

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.

Pharmacists have expressed concerns over plans by GPs to dispense medicine directly to patients.

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.

A new frontline health minister is needed to improve the country’s wellbeing, medics and patients have said.

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

Doctors have described the swapping around of medical card numbers by the Health Service Executive in its national service plan as “farcical”.

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”.

A High Court action opposing free GP care for under-sixes has been withdrawn for “tactical” reasons.

Three quarters of GPs are expected to have signed up to a scheme offering free care to more than 270,000 children aged under six by the end of the month. As demand from parents for online registration caused a system crash on day one, health chiefs said 62% of doctors have so far put their names down for the service.

Only around half of doctors around the country have signed up to provide free GP care for children under the age of 6.

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.

The National Association of General Practitioners says it has been warned that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is monitoring the organisation.