Scan date

At nine this morning, a brisk 25 minute 2km walk to Llandaff's Rookwood hospital across the Fields and past the Cathedral to be given an ultrasound scan on my gall bladder. It was better than waiting for a rush hour bus and walking the last part, and I walked back as well. I arrived fifteen minutes early, waited another half an hour to be seen. The scan man had little to say, he just got on with the full scan survey of my thorax, instructing me when to move, and when to take deep breaths. That was all. The results will reach my GP surgery in about a week's time, he said, when I enquired.

It's the first time I've visited Rookwood since we were in Taormina at the end of 2012 and learned about Sir Edward Hill, industrialist of Rookwood House Llandaff, and his remarkable philanthropic daughter Fanny, who did so much for earthquake orphans, education of the poor, raising funds for an English church, and restoring the parental winter holiday home in an old convent to its original purpose by turning it over to be a home base for Franciscan Missionary sisters. 

Rookwood House has had several purposes since Fanny's parents died and it was sold, all to do with care for the disabled and sick. The distinctive late Victorian house has been extended and some ugly ancillary buildings inserted in the grounds. Although the main facade is recognisable, it's hard now to imagine how elegant it once looked, standing alone at the heart of a small arboretum of trees selected by the Hills. Many of those old trees still survive however, and are well looked after.

Later in the afternoon, a call from Ashley to say the banking Ombudsman's case adjudicator wanted to speak to me about the complaint we made about HSBC's incompetent handling of a necessary account review which has caused CBS many unnecessary problem. The bank admitted liability after we presented them with the evidence, but had not taken further action. Their letter to us came many months after our complaint to them was made. We warned that if we got no response we would take this step, and the Ombudsman's letter confirming they were investigating arrived the same week as the bank's letter. Why should we withdraw? Aware as we are of thousands of SME bank accounts being dealt with in a similar unsatsfactory way, we want to put on record the unseen impact the bank has when it doesn't maintain high professional standards of competence with all its clients.

I called the officer in question who listened with interest to my account of the catalogue of errors which created a situation yet to be resolved satisfactorily. He said it would give him perspective as we worked his way through the dossier of evidence we provided. Fortunately, it just involves an account which has been inactive for the past year anyway, but this still poses problems we could do without, for our public accountability.