Ok so it's been a while since I had a bit of a rant on here but here we go. This morning was a horrible morning and I've been feeling really fed up all day because of it.

So what happened? Well I tried to register at a new GP.

As you may be aware we moved house last month. Usually registering at a GP is one of the first things we do. The closest one I could find was 25 minutes walk away. Convinced there would be a closer one, I didn't rush. Turns out I should of as that is the one for us.

Last week I went for application forms and was given a huge pile for the three girls and myself. Husband goes to a different one through work. Honestly the forms themselves were enough to complain about.

As well as the form about their personal details, illnesses etc. I had to fill out a form for each child as well as myself about how much alcohol we drink and have we ever smoked?…what? They are 2,4 and 6 and have obviously not done either. Even if you were a terrible patent who let them do that sort of thing, you would never answer yes for fear of rightly having your children taken away. What a waste of paper! They should have a space for childrens names and date of births on the parents forms.

It's taken me a week to complete them all and get all the relevant id together as well as everything else I do on a daily basis so today I went back. I was ultra organised with each persons forms in a plastic wallet along with their passport. I had the relevant proof of id and address but here comes the problem. Proof I've lived in the UK for the past 3 years.

I didn't have 3 months worth of bills, bank statements or credit cards.

The bills are in my husbands name as I'm not working and you can't have 2 names on most of them. I couldn't print my bank statements as printer was playing up and I don't have a credit card. To make up for it I took proof that my youngest daughters were born in the UK 2 and 4 years ago, my driving license, NHS numbers, proof of my old GP practice that I've been with for almost 3 years, proof my husband is a British military Officer and various other bits and pieces.

Of course they couldn't tick their box so they wouldn't accept it aaahhhhh!!

So two weeks in a row I have walked 25 minutes there but was still unable to register. I wanted to scream. I was very calm and asked if they could ring my old GP practice to see if I was really registered for as long as I said, I asked if they could ring my husbands work but No. They have to treat everyone the same because of equal opportunities.

Now if I had thought about it at the time I would have argued that equal opportunities are not about treating everyone the same but treating them fairly based on their circumstances.

Honestly rather than being a tick box operation surely they could have applied a bit of a common sense. I am obviously a white British person and with my husbands job there is no doubt we are entitled to NHS services.

I started to walk home fed up and tired but half way back I noticed a HSBC bank I didn't know was there. I popped in and they printed off the relevant statements. Finally I had what I needed.

Why they need bank statements though I have no idea. There was no proof of address on there and really I'm not happy about handing that sort of personal information over.

So there you go. We are finally registered but what a palava. Surely there should be one central NHS computer system with all this information on it. It's ridiculous. What is more ridiculous is that each practice has it's own rules and regulations they basically make up. I for one am not impressed. I appreciate that they need to check people are entitled but surely it shouldn't be so difficult to join a GP practice which is a basic entitlement to every British Citizen.

The week before I popped into the dentist downstairs from the doctors, filled out one form for all of us and that afternoon I received an email telling me we were registered. How can it be so different?

Right rant over for now.

Hope you've had a better day than me.

Karen x