AIBU to not want to pay £1k for a lamp my toddler broke in the doctor's waiting room?

[sanam2010]

Ok so my DH took my 22 month old DD to a doctor for a check-up today. About ten minutes after appointment time, when they had been waiting for 15min, apparently DD reached for the lamp on the magazine table next to them (she was on DH's lap), the lamp fell off the table and broke.

They then said this was a very expensive special lamp worth £1,000 and that we had to pay for a replacement!! Isn't this mad? I don' have any insurance that would cover this.

As much as i regret the damage and wish she hadn't touched anything, first of all if they had kept te appointment time this would not have happened (private practice, not NHS by the way), plus it was a complete accident, not a case of negligence or intentional damage, plus what are they doing putting a £1k lamp on a simple coffee table in the waiting room? And shouldn't their insurance cover this?

What do you guys think is a reasonable agreement i can reach with them? Is it unreasonable not to pay for it?

How did it go from Dr. to Dentist?.

OHand S would not allow a lamp to be in a place where a child could reach it.

Just tell them politely that you would not have taken DD there if you had realised that they had lamps in such close proximity to small children.

Suggest that as you cannot afford to replace said lamp then they may have to claim on their insurance.

This is not from UK but I'm having breakfast... and should be in the shower Applys to all health settings?

There is a safety framework for children (or something) in the uk which describes safe enviornments.

They are the ones who would have been sued if your toddler has sustained an injury.

differentnameforthis, just a query: are you in fact a dentist, or at least working in that field? My gut says you are, from your reaction to this.

Ask to see the original receipt for the lamp...

But fizzybee if she does that she's arguably implicitly acknowledging some kind of liability. The point is the layout here was careless for commercial premises that anticipate having lots of people, and particularly small children, in and out, and that they weren't allowing their DD to run riot in any way. How much the lamp was or wasn't is only relevant to OP's ability to pay - not to morally/legally whether she is obliged to. The latter is the issue.

YANBU!

Would love to know how expensive this private practice's fees are if they have £1k lamp in waiting room.

Their insurance should certainly cover this and if it doesn't, too bad.

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Is there another lamp the same there? If I was in the UK I would happily go there, trip over the cable, break the lamp and sue them. You can have the money I get to make up for being treated like a criminal.

Ghostship the doctor surgery was a private one and not NHS

Thx all, such helpful messages!

Based on your advice i didn't get back to them and am waiting to hear from them. So far have not heard which is interesting, maybe they have realised as well that they can't send me an invoice for this!

Will update if anything happens.

I would politely apologise for the breakage and offer them £100 as full and final settlement.

Put in the bits about H&S as well.

You can buy lamps for a £1000 I thought you were going to mention a special doctory medical lamp thing which in any case if it got broken it was an accident. They should have insurance.

perfectstorm

Nope, not a dentist. Dental nurse, but have not worked as one since 2003. But I don't see what it has to do with anything, to be fair. The insinuation that I only feel this way because I worked in that field is unfair.

I still stand by what I said, it is well within the practices right to furnish their premisses how they wish.

Not read whole thread- sorry. However- don't pay. Cheeky sods. As I see from others comments if your toddler got hurt you could sue. Need to be sensible about where they put their lamps and robustness of lamps.

of course they can furnish their premises as they wish different as long as they dont expect their patients to cough up to restore any furnishings that are accidentally broken as a result of a forseeable situation, ie young child in the waiting area. Legally they are not entitled to do this.

Was the receptionist actually serious about the £1k? Was it not just a badly-judged attempt at a rebuke for your DC by someone who might not be aware what children if that age can/can't understand? The way some people feel compelled to say things like "if you don't behave for your mummy, the man over there will be angry".

Nope, not a dentist. Dental nurse, but have not worked as one since 2003. But I don't see what it has to do with anything, to be fair. The insinuation that I only feel this way because I worked in that field is unfair.

Sorry, but I think the relevance is glaring, given I correctly identified your professional field purely and solely from your response. I'm not psychic. Sadly - that would be useful.

Nothing wrong with viewing things from our own perspective, we all do it - teachers, farmers, lawyers, shopkeepers, everyone. In fact it'd be exceedingly hard to do anything else. But as I say, you just sounded so very invested that it pricked up my antennae. That doesn't make your position meaningless or your contribution invalid, but it does make it biased.

Do you remember the case of the man who tripped on the museum staircase and smashed one Ming vase, which was unsecured, and toppled into 2 other vases? Apparently they were uninsured too. guardian article here