NHS budget in 1997-8: £34billion NHS budget in 2005-6: £90.5billion (from here) but the NHS is in trouble... Now - how did this happen? Can I play devil's advocate for a minute? Is this all solely the government's fault? It has been pouring money into the NHS over the last ten years. More and more control has been handed to hospitals and away from government - "doctors and nurses should be running hospitals", foundation hospitals, etc. etc. So is the government now being accused of not being controlling enough in the way hospitals are run? I work for the NHS. I too am bewildered by the situation, but there is more money than ever available and yet we are apparently in crisis. Can anyone tell me what's going on?