Senior Ministers have privately blamed Tony Abbott's own office for creating this week's $7 GP co-payment crisis which raised tensions between the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and capped off what some concede was the government's worst week since being elected.

The unprecedented criticism of the functioning of the government's highest office came after Mr Abbott walked away from the unpopular policy – outlined for the first time in the May budget – before re-embracing it just 12 hours later, without explanation.

Disunity over the official status of the on-again-off-again $3.6 billion plan, reached farcical levels on Thursday when three senior ministers, Senate leader Eric Abetz, Health Minister Peter Dutton, and Treasurer Joe Hockey, were forced to make clarifying statements emphasising that the government's commitment to it remained un-altered.

Their statements were clearly at odds with stories running in newspapers and electronic bulletins that morning flowing directly from the advice of Mr Abbott's office the evening before.

But nobody in the government is prepared to say what the policy is now amid suggestions the budget saving may be instituted by reducing the Medicare rebate by $5 via regulation rather than legislation in the first instance.

Multiple media organisations had been told the GP co-payment was to be abandoned as it was the "barnacle" to which the Prime Minister had been referring when he promised colleagues he would clear "one or two" of the government's worst political problems before Christmas.

Media outlets duly reported the decision – communicated on a background basis on Wednesday evening – but the revelation appeared to catch other ministers unawares.

Fairfax Media understands the future of the GP policy had actually been discussed at the government's razor-gang Expenditure Review Committee meeting on Tuesday but no decision was taken to scotch it.

The government was in damage control mode on Friday with insiders blaming the media staff in the Prime Minister's office for "going beyond their pay grade".

"It had not been to cabinet and a decision like that would definitely got to cabinet," said one senior insider.

Another said it was purely a result of Mr Abbott's staff getting the story wrong claiming Mr Abbott had no knowledge or involvement and claiming that he had sent Mr Hockey and the other ministers out on Thursday morning to "clean up the mess".

However Mr Hockey was not contacted by the Prime Minister or his office on Thursday.

Rather he acted alone when he told reporters in Canberra and did radio in Sydney to explain there was no change to the government policy regarding the proposed $7 charge for bulk-billed patients.

"It's not a barnacle," he said.

"It is a policy that is about trying to fix some of the challenges associated with the mess that was left to us by the previous government," he said.

The confusion has further shaken confidence in the Prime Minister's capacity to control the political messaging around difficult economic policies.

However others say the situation, dubbed the "barnacle debacle" because it flowed from the raised expectations from Mr Abbott's Tuesday party-room address, reflects a schism in the government between Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey – with the latter attempting to hold the line against pragmatism in order to secure necessary budget savings.

The messy handling of the matter had government ministers and their staff bemused and unsure of the what Mr Abbott had meant in his "barnacle" reference.

The government is struggling with a raft of deadlocked budget measures blocked by a hostile Senate in the grip of a record cross-bench.

Stalled measures include the higher education reforms which Labor says will allow "million-dollar degrees"; the GP co-payment; a series of pension changes; new restrictions on eligibility for the dole, and other matters which together the government maintains would restore some $28 billion to the beleaguered budget bottom line.