In a depressing return to the way things were, the inhumanity at the heart of the health service bureaucracy was again exposed in the Dáil yesterday. And once again, a Taoiseach seemed unable to comprehend that real lives exist behind the expert groups and look-back reviews, writes MIRIAM LORD.
After Bertie, comes Brian. Different style, but no change, it seems.
Should Taoiseach Cowen be of a mind to listen to his people on the ground rather than his "expert" advisers, he might discover that more than 6,000 people in the northeast region are unlikely to be reassured by his news that they probably don't have a terminal illness.
These are the people who had chest scans in the Louth and Navan hospitals last year and were subsequently given the all-clear. Unfortunately, a concern has arisen over the accuracy of the results following misdiagnoses in a small number of cases. All scans carried out during the period in question are now being reassessed.
"They are being reviewed on the basis of a precautionary principle," Cowen informed the House.
Which should come as a comfort to the patients involved.
It was Enda Kenny who raised the issue, highlighting the case of Anne Kealy, a mother of four who went to hospital for a scan in March of last year and was told she had pneumonia. She was admitted, and contracted MRSA.
At home five weeks later, she was still feeling unwell and her family returned with her to the hospital and demanded she be given another scan. It showed she had cancer throughout her body.
Anne Kealy's future now hangs on the basis of a precautionary principle. She got her letter last week - two letters in fact - from the HSE, informing her that an expert team of radiologists were carrying out a look-back review of scans, her one included.
"Based upon expert medical advice it is our expectation that in the vast majority of cases there will be no cause for concern," soothed the letter, which dropped upon many thousands of doormats recently.
That expectation was not exactly imbued with confidence, if the last line of the letter is anything to go by: "If you are reading this letter and are not the addressee, we very much regret any distress this may cause to you and your family."
They were right to have reservations. Anne Kealy died last August.
As for the letter, what sort of assurance does the phrase "vast majority of cases" give to a person who could well be the unlucky one who falls into the tiny minority?
Kenny revealed that these letters, many of which were insensitive and "botched", were not actually sent out by the HSE.
Instead, the duty of writing to inform people that they might not be as well as they think they are was outsourced to a private company.
Why couldn't the HSE, with its huge workforce, undertake the task? wondered the Fine Gael leader.
The matter was very "unfortunate" said the Taoiseach, and was down to human error.
No comfort to the people in the northeast who have been told it will take up to eight weeks for them to find out if they are in the clear, thundered Enda.
He was damn sure the Taoiseach wouldn't wait for eight weeks for the results of a scan, no more than any other member of the Dáil.
Call in the Minister for Health immediately and tell her to set up a clinic this weekend, so people can have their scans.
She did it for the women in Portlaoise because "her head was on the line."
Brian Cowen acknowledged people's "legitimate anxieties". But he added that there "is a difference in this instance in that we are applying a precautionary principle to a large number of files. It is wrong to suggest that an inherent danger of a possible misdiagnosis attaches to them all".
He accused the Opposition of "inflaming" the situation.
Never mind the thousands who are scared witless, not knowing who, if any, will be the unlucky ones.
The experts have spoken.
It's just a matter of precautionary principle.
Let them wait.