"I COULD shout for joy. I could cry with joy." The words of pensioner Les Howard today, after The Press brokered a deal with a private hospital to save his sight.

This time, it is a happy outcome. The Nuffield Hospital stepped forward after we reported yesterday how NHS bosses had refused to treat the retired policeman's failing eyesight until he had gone blind in one eye.

Now, the Nuffield will pay for his treatment.

It is a generous gesture. But how many more people are there out there like Mr Howard? People with serious conditions - chronic pain, failing eyesight - who the NHS will not treat? The Nuffield cannot pay for them all.

Our website was flooded with comments yesterday from people outraged by Mr Howard's treatment. One man offered to give up his knee operation if it meant the money could be found to help him.

Nothing could illustrate more powerfully the extent of the disillusion that so many now feel with the NHS.

Health bosses argue this case wasn't about money. The drugs Mr Howard needs haven't yet been approved for use in the UK.

But the issue is not whether they work, but whether they represent value. And trusts have been told they can prescribe them if they think they do.

North Yorkshire health bosses decided Mr Howard's eyesight wasn't worth it. How shabby and unfeeling that makes them seem.