Things that annoy you...

A Christian GP who told a patient "the devil haunts people who do not turn to Jesus" has been given a warning about his behaviour by medical watchdogs.

Dr Richard Scott, 51, a former missionary doctor, "crossed the line" during the consultation because of his deep religious convictions and pushed his faith on a psychologically disturbed patient, which left the patient distressed, the General Medical Council (GMC) ruled.

But the GP branded the four-day hearing a charade and questioned why the GMC had pursued the case when his accuser had initially refused to give evidence and then only did so over the telephone with the public and press banned from the hearing room.

The father-of-three from Margate, Kent, said: "I think the judgment had been made in advance, whatever happened. The GMC was determined that I was to get a warning. This has effectively been a four-day charade.

"The panel has chosen to believe a patient with massive and multiple problems against a doctor of 28 years' standing, embedded in his local community with hundreds of testimonials from other patients of his.

"Whether it was reiki, acupuncture or even Islam, that particular doctor would not be in our position now. I think they are discriminating against Christians.

"I am both angry and disappointed in my professional body."

Dr Scott was found to have pushed his religious views on the suicidal 24-year-old man, known as patient A, during the 25-minute consultation.

Patient A, whose own religion was not disclosed, had attended the "expressly Christian" Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate in August 2010, where Dr Scott has worked since 2003 with his wife, also a GP.

It was only after the patient's mother complained that the GP was accused of breaking the rules about imposing personal views on patients.

He was issued with a warning from the GMC that will stay on his registration for five years.

During four days of evidence at the hearing in Manchester, the GMC's investigations committee heard conflicting accounts of what was said during the consultation, which the GMC committee said were due to differing perceptions.

The GP, who worked as a missionary doctor in India and Tanzania, claimed that, after the usual medical consultation, he made a "gentle offer" to the patient to broach the subject of faith and was told "go for it".

But later Dr Scott said the patient "cut up rough" and told him it was "a load of bollocks".

In an 11-page finding, the GMC committee ruled that the GP had told the patient he was not going to offer him any medical help, tests or advice and stated if he did not "turn towards Jesus then he would suffer for the rest of his life".

The committee also found that the GP had said no other religion in the world could offer him what Jesus could and he had used the phrase, or something similar to "the Devil haunts people who do not turn to Jesus and hand him their suffering".

Issuing the GP with a warning, committee chairman Dr Christopher Hanning said: "The committee consider that you went beyond the limit of such spiritual guidance as would have been appropriate.

"Your actions caused some distress to Patient A, which was foreseeable.

"He said that he felt abused. This is plainly inappropriate and not in his best interests. In this way you sought to impose your own beliefs on your patient.

"You thereby caused the patient distress through insensitive expression of your religious beliefs."