Dr Peter Fisher, a prominent figure on the UK homeopathic scene, was killed this week in a tragic cycling accident in London.
Fisher, most famously, was homeopathic physician to the Queen, a role he held for nearly 17 years.
Sir Marcus Setchell, a former surgeon to the Queen, told the London Evening Standard newspaper that Fisher ‘was much respected as a good doctor who saw homeopathy as complementary to medical care’.
Colleagues at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, part of University College Hospital, spoke of their shock and sadness at news of his death. Gill Gaskin, medical director at UCH, told The Times: “Peter was a highly-regarded colleague and friend of many at the RLHIM. He was committed to holistic and compassionate care for his patients.”
Greg White, chief executive of the Faculty of Homeopathy, said that the discipline had lost an ‘irreplaceable talent’ and a ‘giant in his field’. Former collaborator, but more recently adversary, professor Edzard Ernst, said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by Fisher’s death, adding that homeopathy has lost ‘one of its very few personalities capable of critical stance’.
Homeopathy has been under a concerted attack in the UK in recent years, which had led to publicly funded homeopathic treatments being virtually outlawed. In this hostile climate, the UK homeopathic community is likely to miss Fisher’s deep knowledge and leadership.
Photo: Dr Peter Fisher, RLHIM
