Walking through the double glass doors of Global House on Victoria Street, I am disoriented until I see a notice telling former Medical Clinic patients to go to the first floor for the Department of Financial Assistance.

As a reporter for The Royal Gazette I have received complaints from former medical clinic patients about the Financial Assistance programme so I decided to try to apply myself.

So passing through an intimidating wooden door, I finally reach those who are supposed to help me out of my financial cul-de-sac.

After tenuously approaching the window where a receptionist sits, I am asked to wait and I take a seat on the couch.

In a couple of minutes I am greeted by Chantel Smith a Manager in the Department, who calls for me from a sparely decorated room with not much more than a desk, a couple of chairs and a Kleenex box.

As I enter the room she extends her hand and introduces herself as my pre-screening officer and she sits behind a desk and I take a chair across from her.

We quickly set down to business with Ms Smith asking me questions from the Initial Screening Information sheet. It's the usual: name, birthday, address and employer information.

After she fills out the form for me - which is standard practice but applicants can do it themselves if they prefer - Ms Smith scans a list of 18 items required by the Department before approval.

I am lucky to find out, because of my answers on the first form, I only need eight items including a Birth certificate or Passport, the medical form, updated banking details, pension stub and Social Insurance Card, pay stubs for the last three months, utility bills, my rental agreement and a record of all current debts.

Multi-coloured forms are then shuffled across the desk with an explanation of what each one is. A pink form, Rental Verification, is actually one of the hardest forms to fill out- not just for myself concedes Ms Smith, but for landlords.

Hardly reassuring, she tells me that in the past, because the Department will pay for my rent if I qualify, the landlords have complained about receiving payments.

Apparently, though, it has been the fault of applicants who did not submit their rent form in adequate time for Financial Assistance to give payment.

One final form needs to be filled-out before I can leave the pre-screening process as a former medical clinic patient- the Department of Social Insurance HIP form.

Completed, Ms Smith hands me my temporary Medical Assistance card with the expiry date (three months from the date) and a blue dot for doctors to identify me.

I'm warned over and over again to return as soon as possible so I can finally be assessed for financial assistance and receive my actual medical card.

As I try to reassure Ms Smith that I will be back in a couple of weeks, as I scan through the forms I'm not sure how I will be able to collect everything and I walk out feeling a little overwhelmed.