No computers

We recently had to go to the Registry Office - to register the birth of our baby boy. By law you've got 30 days to do this, but in practice you need to do it the first week out of hospital, as you need papers to be able to get a doctor's appointment for the baby - for his first check-up one week after leaving hospital.

I decided to check the procedure myself before dragging my partner down to the Registry Office. There were loads of people waiting for birth certificates and who knows what else in this huge building down by the old Port. I knew the building already, as I once lived just around the corner for about 6 months - and remembered seeing people gathered in the adjoining square after getting married.

Having assembled all the papers we needed, we arranged to leave the baby with our neighbour upstairs and took a taxi down to get the paperwork done. There was no system for arranging a visit at a fixed time. The day before nobody was waiting when I checked on this service, but on this day we'd timed our arrival badly. What's worse, those waiting entered according to alphabetical groups (the reason for this soon became apparent). In seeing others arrive later and enter before us I felt there had to be a better way. Then a man approached who obviously knew the workings of this service inside out. "Everything is manual", he told me. Each new birth is written in a huge book by hand - and there are six different books, covering different letters.

In the whole building there were probably only two computers, he noted. The rent on this building alone must be at least €100,000 a month, sufficient to buy 100 computers. Imagine how much time, money and personnel could be saved if the service was computerised. Other regions in Spain allow you to do this by internet - but hey, who cares if everyone has to stand in line for an hour to do something as basic as register the birth of their child.