At a hearing in Manchester, the General Medical Council (GMC) was told that a Christian GP, Dr Richard Scott, clearly ‘crossed the line’ when he spoke to a ‘suicidal’ and ‘vulnerable’ 24-year-old patient about religion, asking him if he had considered faith in Jesus!

The GMC heard that it was at the Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate last year when Dr Scott, 51, told the patient – identified only as Patient A – that he may be able to rise above his personal problems if he had faith in Christianity.

The investigation committee was briefed that Dr Scott discussed his own personal religious beliefs after the Patient A – whose religious affiliation remains undisclosed - told him to "go for it." The suggestion from the doctor apparently upset the patient who felt that the GP was trying to belittle his own faith. As such, the patient made a complaint.

However, arguing against the complaint, Paul Diamond - Dr Scott’s counsel – said that it was only towards the end of the consultation that the doctor deemed it appropriate to talk about matters of religious faith to the young man.

Stressing the fact that Dr Scott persistently suggested the patient was likely to benefit more from a Christian faith than his own religion, Paul Ozin, for the GMC, told the committee that “a line was crossed” by the doctor as he expressed his personal religious belief to a patient “who he knew was a vulnerable patient” and in manner which was “plainly liable to cause the patient distress”!