CMF defends Christian doctor under investigation for Jesus comments

Dr Richard Scott, 50, fears being struck off after he suggested that a patient turn to Jesus as part of the healing process.

Dr Scott made the suggestion to a patient he saw last year at the Bethesda Medical Centre in Kent, a practice known for its Christian partners.

He raised the issue of how faith in Jesus had helped him, but maintains that he only raised spiritual issues at the end of the consultation and after asking the patient’s permission first.

“At no time did the patient indicate that they were offended, or that they wanted to stop the discussion,” he said.

“If that had been the case, I would have immediately ended the conversation.”

Now Dr Scott is being investigated by the General Medical Council after a complaint was made by the patient’s mother.

The GMC said Dr Scott had distressed the patient and issued him with an official warning.

However, Dr Scott is challenging the complaint, saying that the conversation fell within the GMC’s own guidelines, which permit doctors to express their religious beliefs so long as it is done gently and sensitively.

Chief Executive of the Christian Medical Fellowship, Dr Peter Saunders, said the GP appeared to have a genuine desire to make his patients’ welfare his main concern and to raise spiritual issues with sensitivity and respect.

Dr Saunders said the GMC had “clearly overreacted”.

“It appears that the General Medical Council has acted with inappropriate and disproportionate force and appears to have applied its guidance in a selective and unbalanced way,” he wrote on his blog.

“Let’s hope that it reassesses its position and applies its own guidance in an even-handed way by balancing more carefully what it calls ‘the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion’ with ‘the entitlement to care and treatment to meet clinical needs’.

“If it fails to do so it may find itself losing more than its credibility.”

Dr Scott’s case is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, which has appointed human rights lawyer Paul Diamond to represent him.

Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, Andrea Minichiello Williams, said the complaint appeared to be a “smokescreen to express frustration and to publicly disagree with the professional treatment offered”.

“The GMC must not bow to political or emotional pressure in this case and should back the GP 100 per cent, as he acted within their own guidelines, and his unblemished record should not be tarnished – even by a letter on his file,” she said.

“Many patients are helped when a doctor, in the natural course of a discussion, talks about their spiritual needs.

“This is all Dr Scott was doing and he should not be punished for this or prevented from doing so in the future.”