The Post Code Lottery

The post code lottery is something that has been of a small amount of criticism from the public and media in recent years. Essentially, the way that it works is that each county, or area is allowed a degree of autonomy in making certain drugs free on the NHS and other ones that have to be paid for. This is seen as the "post code lottery", because people who live in Derby are given their drugs for free, whereas suffers of the same disease are not given their drugs for free because they live in Manchester.

However, the post code lottery is actually somewhat essential for the effective running of our NHS. It is clear that some diseases are more prevelant in some areas than others. Lets say that in Derby there are 1000 sufferers of X, and 500 sufferers of Y. In Manchester, there are 500 sufferers of X and 1000 sufferers of Y. The current system ensures that the Mancheter Health Board are able to give free drugs for sufferers of Y, and not X - thus making sure that 1000 people are catered for for free. The Derby Health Board are able to give free drugs to suffers of X and not Y - thus ensuring that 1000 people are catered for for free - a total of 2000. Making all drugs free is not possible because there is only a limited pot of money.

Now, that system sounds thoroughly reasonable. There is not enough money to ensure that everyone is catered for. But because of the decentralisation, the maximum number of people can be given the drugs for free. If we were to enact a system without the post code lottery - say making the drugs for X free and not Y - the result would be thus: Derby would have 1000 patients given their drugs for free, and Manchester would have just 500 having free drugs - making a total of 1500. This system surely is less efficient than the decentralised post code lottery.

Removing the post code lottery in the name of equality is achieving nothing but an improvement in political stature