Dr Patricia Ridsdale, Vice President of the Faculty of Homeopathy, together with Dr Gary Smyth, President of the Faculty of Homeopathy, co-chaired the Faculty's 99th Congress online on 22nd October. Speakers included Dr David Lilley live from South Africa and Past President, Dr Bob Leckridge, speaking live from his home in France. A research section provided updates on Covid 19 live from Vienna and Geneva and from Professor Aaron To, live from Hong Kong. The timings were a challenge but it successfully brought together over 100 homeopathic health professionals from around the world and provided a forum for discussion and professional development. The Congress was also attended by Dr Gabi Day, who was on the organising committee, and also Drs David Owen and Tim foster, all from The Natural Practice.
Dr Ridsdale has also attended the European Congress for Integrative Medicine recently. It was great to be able to mingle, if only online, with healthcare professionals and educators from around the world coming together to advocate for sharing of evidence based, safe, individualised healthcare. We spoke about how to ensure that medical students have access to Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) education and how working with our patients to create an individualised treatment plan, that suits the particular patient needs and empowers the patient to be involved in their own healing journey, could transform healthcare worldwide.