Whilst it's always right to question whether spending has delivered results,
you have to keep in mind (with apologies for the over simplification) that very few organisations would show 100% improvement if you increased their budget by 100%. A lot of investment has gone into the infrastructure of the NHS which had been neglected by both Conservative and Labour Governments and that money whilst being utterly necessary does not have anything like a pro-rata effect on anything measurable such as waiting lists.

It's also worth remembering that there has been a massive turnaround on the issue of investment in public services. Prior to the 1997 election Labour were having to promise to keep their spending down to the levels of the Conservative goverment (I think for the first two years) to counter "wild tax & spend" allegations. Now the Conservatives are having to promise to match the level of government spending. This government has raised the levels of expectation, and made the issue of investment in public services a much more central issue. The Conservatives now adopting the same strategy (having opposed it in the early years of the Labour government) must be an endorsement of its success, surely.
(Cave Duck, Fri 30 Apr 2010, 11:38, Reply)