Meaning of postcode lottery | Babel Free

Definitions

The unequal availability or quality of services, especially public services such as healthcare or education, in different parts of the country.

British

Examples

“There is a National Institute for Clinical Excellence which is working its way through examining drugs and treatments and dictating what treatment and drugs should be used across the country to prevent⟳ the postcode lottery of previous years.”

“The Audit Commission has described the situation facing householders as a ‘postcode lottery’ but there is a discernible trend. You are more likely to receive⟳ poorer environmental services living in an urban authority than you are living in a shire district.”

“People were angry about the postcode lottery in the NHS [National Health Service], or that this school is better than that school and I can't get⟳ into the good school. Of all inequalities, these things make⟳ people far angrier than anything else, even angrier than financial inequalities.”

“Yet, at the start⟳ of the twenty-first century, access to health care is not equitable; ‘postcode’ lotteries exist⟳; and certain groups are favoured over others, who are equally deserving but who live⟳ in an inner-city area, are unemployed or do not have⟳ English as a first language, with the result⟳ that they cannot claim⟳ the services that were intended precisely for them.”

“A Briton's chance of finding a good school, or effective treatment for a medical condition, or any kind of NHS dentist, may depend⟳ on the ‘postcode lottery’. Thus not just the management of the economy but specific policies on public services create⟳ winners and losers[…].”

“[T]he developing argument is that localism requires postcode lotteries; this is something that politicians need⟳ to become⟳ accustomed to if the local variations result⟳ from decisions at the local level by empowered citizens. However, there is some evidence which suggests that the public remain⟳ in favour of the equity argument over postcode lotteries.”

“What has mainly concerned patients has been the regional variations in treatments available (the postcode lottery), the pressure on A & E [accident and emergency] departments, the lack of resources for post-hospital care and the provision of a seven-day hospital service (which has involved a bitter contractual dispute with junior doctors).”

“The discussion of 'street-level bureaucrats' in Chapter 2 set⟳ out a strong theoretical basis for scepticism about whether it is possible to avoid⟳ a postcode lottery, even in situations where services are controlled centrally. The potential points of variation and the ways in which culture in different front-line delivery institutions can affect⟳ results persist despite control⟳ mechanisms being imposed. So there is good reason⟳ to believe⟳ that the postcode lottery will continue⟳ even in situations of ostensible central control⟳.”

“A postcode lottery in cancer care means more than one-fifth of patients with cancerous tumours wait⟳ longer than two months to have⟳ them removed in some parts of England, Labour has claimed.”

“A list of the 20 costliest climate disasters of 2023 has revealed a “global postcode lottery stacked against the poor”, according to an analysis.”

CEFR level