By Ingrid Hipkiss
A Sydney doctor has been struck off for prescribing a New Zealand man a drug for something that isn't an illness – his homosexuality.
The GP, who is a member of the Exclusive Brethren, claimed he was just trying to cure the patient who was also a member of the church at the time.
Craig Hoyle, 23, says he had sought help from the church leaders when he realised he was gay at the age of 16.
“I believed homosexuality was a sin, that the church could help me cure, so for the next few months they did everything they could to try and change me,” he says.
“There were prayers, and I was told I had demons, and none of it worked.”
But Mr Hoyle was told there was a medication he could take to "fix" him, and says he was told to visit Sydney GP Mark Craddock, who was also a member of the church.
“I told him that I was there because I was gay, and he prescribed the drug,” says Mr Hoyle. “There was no physical examination, no discussion of past medical history, and no discussion of side effects.”
The drug was Cyprostat. It is more commonly used to treat prostate cancer or to subdue sex offenders, and was of no medical benefit to Craig.
But it wasn't until he left the church in 2009 that he plucked up the courage to lay a complaint against the doctor.
Australia’s Health Care Complaints Commission has now found Craddock guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct, a result MR Hoyle says he is happy with.
“To know that he's not going to be able to do this to anyone else is a significant step,” he says. “I’ve known all along what he did was wrong, but to have that acknowledged by the medical board is important to me.”
Craddock is now banned from general practice.
3 News