The Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth spoke for everybody in that difficult position when he stood up in the House of Lords and called for the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to be quicker when it assesses drugs and their cost-effectiveness.
The Right Reverend Dr Stevenson, who speaks with the knowledge and experience of a man who has received treatment for leukaemia, said: 'We must not forget that this is not about balancing books. It is about anxious patients, of which I have been one.'
He is absolutely right to raise this issue. There are some heart-rending stories of people who could benefit from certain drugs but who cannot do so because, although they have been licensed, they have not yet been officially approved by NICE. So instead they are condemned to waiting and hoping while accountants decide if those drugs can be afforded.
To people like Margaret Kew from Fareham, whose 49-year-old son Steve suffers from multiple sclerosis, the issue is simple. Drugs that could help him should be made available as fast as possible. That they are not must be incredibly frustrating.
Imagine facing a serious or life-threatening condition and knowing that a particular treatment could help, but it is not available purely because of cost. For people denied what they need most, the acronym NICE must be cruelly ironic.
Of course we all have to recognise that the NHS does not have a bottomless pit of money. Difficult judgments do have to be made. But surely provision of drugs that are potentially life-saving or life-changing must come high up the list of priorities. Besides, some of these drugs are freely available in other countries. How do they afford it?
And isn't it strange that breast cancer drug Herceptin can be adjudged cost-effective by NICE and made widely available to breast cancer patients in record time – but only after concerted campaigning and a furore in the media?