More worryingly, the most recent waiting list figures available are from June 2002, before the post-election cutbacks. We have to wait until mid-May to find out the number of people on waiting lists as a result of post-election cutbacks and the withdrawal of the national treatment purchase fund. It is outrageous that the Department's information systems are so antiquated that it takes four and a half months to establish how many people are awaiting a hospital bed. Four out of ten children who need cardiac surgery have to wait the promised six months, seven out of ten of those awaiting ear, nose or throat surgery have to wait the same length of time, as do eight out of ten children awaiting plastic surgery.