The crisis du jour centres on the state of cancer services around the country.
Yesterday the Taoiseach conceded that "systemic weaknesses" of governance, management and communications are among the problems that have to be addressed in sorting out the situation in oncology.
He agrees that the HSE is a difficult creature. There's nearly 40 years of bureaucratic mayhem to set to rights. Somebody has to make a start. Things used to be an awful lot worse.
It is nobody's fault.
Bertie is not a man for the blame game, nor is he going to be lured into it by the Opposition, because it doesn't get anyone anywhere. He is more concerned with going forward.
Reports have been commissioned. New structures are to be put in place.
Above all, Bertie Ahern will broach no criticism of frontline workers, who are doing a terrific job. God bless them all, decent hard-working men and women. He is very strong on this, which is commendable but surplus to requirements, because no politician ever criticises the footsoldiers anyway.
Furthermore, Bertie thinks it regrettable that the Opposition insists on focusing on just one small area of the health service. Granted, there have been difficulties where cancer is concerned, but it's just not fair to use one unfortunate situation as a stick to attack the entire health service, which is actually very, very good.
Which is essentially what he told the Dáil during Leaders' Questions.
All this is fine, except it isn't the first time the Taoiseach has advanced such arguments in defence of various aspects of the health service.
Repeated enough, the lines tend to lodge in the brain after a while.
Yesterday afternoon, while he made his comments to the Dáil in relation to various reports commissioned in the aftermath of the cancer diagnosis debacle in Portlaoise, he could just as easily been talking about the intolerable situation in A&E departments, or the lack of mental health services for young people or nursing home care for the elderly or cystic fibrosis facilities.
Why? Because we've heard him doing it, extending the exact same arguments.
Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore had no axe to grind yesterday with the rank and file workers in the health service. They wanted accountability at senior management level, and ultimately, at Government level. This was clear to anyone following the proceedings.
But not to Bertie Ahern, who did what he always does and took umbrage on behalf of the workers. He wasn't going to come down hard on the 130,000 employees of the HSE who are serving a population of over four million people.
Off he went, in stalwart defence of those people who toil "in operation theatres" and "in community health settings."
People who are "trying to both diagnose and implement treatments, trying to look after our old people, to bring young people into this life and are trying to service to the best of their ability".
It was hard to argue with the Taoiseach, specially when he said: "I think they are fine people."
To be fair to Bertie, it is often pointed out that he has an ability in the Dáil to distance himself from difficult situations. He often depicts himself as baffled as the next man about the way things happen in Irish life.
Yesterday, he took the hands-on approach.
"My job and the job of the Minister is to try and improve what's good and correct, what's bad and to try to learn from these issues to improve it."
Can't say fairer than that.
"Now, what I want to do is even make it all better," soothed Dr Bertie yesterday.
He wouldn't do it at the expense of the workers, though. "I'm not here to berate people, I mean, if you want me to say that I think some of them aren't working hard enough, of some of the staff are too fat or too slim, that isn't what it's about."
So where do were go from here? The Taoiseach has conceded that there are "systemic weaknesses" that need to be addressed. Big, big mistakes have been made. Public patients have lost confidence. How to win it back? At last, great news.
"A new serious incident management protocol" is to be put in place, the Taoiseach informed the house.
This might take some time.
Worry not.
The HSE "is immediately adopting an interim serious incident management protocol".
How reassuring.
