Devolution Fuels Postcode Lottery
Devolution Fuels Postcode Lottery
Devolution has created four different health systems in Britain, making healthcare even more of a postcode lottery according to Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
She said that the best country to be a patient depended on who you were, your age and your condition. For example, while a young person needing an operation would be best served in England, someone with a chronic condition such as asthma would be better off in Scotland or Wales because of the free prescriptions.
Campaigners have warned that the differences were creating patient envy. "Patients are increasingly looking across national borders and wondering why they are not getting the care others are getting," said Joyce Robins of Patient Concern. "I am not sure this is good for the NHS."
The Daily Telegraph, 3 January 2008