GO AD-FREE. Get 2 Months Digital Subscription for ONLY £1! Use code 2FOR1
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
GO AD-FREE. Get 2 Months Digital Subscription for ONLY £1! Use code 2FOR1
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
The General Medical Council is reviewing a decision not to investigate a Kent GP accused of praying with patients.
The governing body originally decided to drop the complaint against Margate GP Dr Richard Scott.
But now National Secular Society has welcomed an apparent U-turn.
Chief executive Stephen Evans said: "Dr Scott's recent comments appear to make clear that he holds the GMC in contempt and considers himself above the rules it puts in place to protect patients.
"Being an evangelical Christian should not exempt him from the standards expected of all doctors working in the UK.
"Conversion activity is exploitative and violates the trust that should exist between doctors and patients, particularly when it targets vulnerable patients.
"Medical regulators should take all reasonable steps to prevent it."
The matter was first thrown out before it could proceed to a tribunal hearing.
Dr Scott, who works at Bethesda Medical Centre in Palm Bay Avenue, Cliftonville, said it should never have been allowed to get that far.
He said the complaint stemmed from an interview he did for the BBC Radio 4 series Battles That Won Our Freedoms in which he admitted using prayer with patients.
He said: "The great irony is that someone listening didn't like what I was saying and complained to the National Secular Society which complained to the GMC. It's all very bizarre. This wasn't a complaint from a patient of mine.
"This is what I refer to as a vexatious complaint.
"The GMC should have just thrown it out or talked to me about it. Instead, they chose to take it on as a fitness to practise investigation which is simply wrong.
"Quite often I offer prayer to my patients but the National Secular Society don't like this."
In 2013 the GP wrote a book about his battle with cancer from perspectives of both his medical and religious beliefs.
A spokesman for the National Secular Society said Dr Scott's Radio 4 comments formed only part of the complaint.
"At the beginning of January, we were contacted by a member of the public who was concerned because an acquaintance whom she described as 'highly vulnerable' was being treated at the practice and was made to feel uncomfortable by Dr Scott imposing his religious views," he said.
