A Christian doctor, who was at risk of losing his medical license for offering to pray with and provide spiritual care to his patients, has reached a settlement with NHS England after agreeing to attend one course on “professional boundaries” with no admittance of wrongdoing.
Dr. Richard Scott, a general practitioner at the Bethesda Medical Centre in Margate, Kent, England, “has been vindicated” following a “four-year campaign” threatening his livelihood, according to the U.K.-based group Christian Concern, whose legal arm, the Christian Legal Centre, supported his case.
At the Ashford Tribunal Hearing Centre in Kent, NHS England lawyers agreed that Scott is free to offer to pray for and with patients if he does so within agreed General Medical Council guidance. In return, the doctor, while admitting no wrongdoing, agreed to attend a one-day course related to professional boundaries.
He had previously refused to attend a three-day course aimed at people who had been accused of sexual impropriety.
Christian Concern said, “Dr. Scott maintains that he has always offered prayer and spiritual support within GMC guidance and that complaints against him have been consistently engineered by secular groups and anonymous complainants.”
Scott, who has practiced medicine for 20 years, said he is relieved that NHS England has agreed to settle the case, but said it never should have come to this.