The health service was out on its feet because a bad service was devastated by the cutbacks post-1987 and a huge amount of now vastly more expensive equipment had to be replaced as a matter of urgency. The Government could not understand why all the money it was spending was not doing what it wanted and it was unable to deal with the ineptitude of management in health boards which could not use resources it was given and was not prepared to identify its members as the accountable parties. The absence of a real strategy meant that money was scattered across every area.