morwen | I've never been banned from a GP before

So I've been having increasingly bad health problems and my current GP clinic is rubbish, so I need a new gp. Having got no recommendations for ones that would take me I decided to try the St James Practice on the basis that it was easy to get to, had good reviews, and had several female doctors.

Their website says they accept most of E17. Great. They have a PDF showing the exact roads. Download. Check. Oh, no Hoe Street. Weird. I check whether it has Third Avenue and Orford Road - it does. (these being side roads of Hoe Street deliniating my block which is - and this is important - on the far side of hoe street to the clinic.) this looks like it could be just an error. Still, better not presume. I phone to check.

Hi, I want to check if I'm in your catchment area. See-
What road do you live on?
Hoe Street, E17 9PT
That's fine. [Details about registration times]
Oh, cos I was worried it might not be in the area
[List of ID requirements]
Ok, thanks

So I got my stuff together and arrived there earlier this morning.

I was told I could not register because Hoe Street was not on the list.

I explained my phone call. They did not apologise for the bad info they gave, disclaing responsibility (even though one invoked her status as registration manager).

I explained that it looked like the exclusion of Hoe Street was a mere error, and asked whether First Avenue was on their list. It was. They said there was a closer GP to where I live (they mentioned this several times in fact, as if it had anything to do with catchment areas). I said I know but I had problems there. I pointed out that there were lots of roads on their list that were closer to that one and were east of Hoe Street. I said I thought catchment areas were areas, and if Hoe Street were excluded it was not an area. I invited them to refer to the map on my phone so as to see this and agree that there was an anomaly. They refused to look at this or agree that their catchment area was strange. I wasn't expecting actually to be registered, but for an agreement there was something odd in the list and it could be checked with someone actually capable of making decisions.

They disowned the list when I called it 'your list', saying it was the PCTs list, not theirs. While at the same time asserting it to be correct. The one who identified herself as the "registration manager" was particularly insistent it was inerrant, saying that she personally had turned away several people because they live on Hoe Street.

They said they had explained things to me, which I disagreed with - they had not explained the hole or the phone call (I mean an explanation of "we don't do partial roads", or even just "we don't know yet but we'll find out" would do), and that I was now wasting their time. Eventually it wound up with them giving me a phone number for Waltham Forest PCT, me telling them I would complain, and them telling me I was banned anyway because of my 'attitude' or some such. I wonder if I am also banned from the blood clinic that I use in the same building.

Throughout this discussion they referred to me with gender-inapprpriate honorifics, despite being corrected.