Family may re-lay complaint against charged doctor

The family of a man who took his own life is considering a formal complaint against his psychiatrist - already facing a manslaughter charge in England.

Peter Fisher, 45, was arrested by British police at Heathrow Airport a week ago and charged over the death of suicide victim Peter Weighman, who overdosed on painkillers in 2002.

Fisher was also the doctor in three New Zealand cases which involved deaths, including Christchurch man Tristan Dick, 27, who killed himself in 1998.

Dick's sister, Violet Clapham, and mother, Rosalie Dick, last year complained to the office of the Health and Disabilities Commissioner over Fisher's care.

They were told that the complaint was not pursued because of changes made to procedures after the death.

The family said yesterday they were now considering a fresh complaint.

Fisher was arrested after travelling from New Zealand to Britain, where his parents are based, for a holiday.

It is understood he had been working as a waiter in Queenstown.

Fisher illegally took up a post at a north of England hospital in August 2002 while still under investigation in New Zealand for professional misconduct in the case of Southland patient Mark Burton, a paranoid schizophrenic, who stabbed his mother to death a day after being discharged.

In November 2003, New Zealand's Medical Practitioners' Disciplinary Tribunal found Fisher guilty of 17 counts of professional misconduct. He was suspended for six months and ordered to retrain if he wished to continue practising in psychiatry, prompting Mr Dick's family to make their first complaint.

Fisher was also linked to the case of Invercargill man Peter Wilhelm, 20, who was found dead in 1995, the day after Fisher wrote a letter to a superior stating Mr Wilhelm had not been suicidal while in hospital.

- NZPA