Doctor who sold stolen NHS PPE during critical Covid shortage struck off

Jane Barlow/PA Wire

By Daniel Pye

A doctor who sold personal protective equipment during a critical shortage in the pandemic has been struck off.

Last year Dr Attiya Sheikh received a 10-month prison sentence after admitting she, along with husband Omer Sheikh, had sold PPE on eBay that had been taken from NHS Scotland between May and October 2020 as coronavirus spread in the UK.

The pair had made £7,827 out of selling equipment including gloves and face masks. When the police searched their home in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire, in October 2020 more than 120 boxes of PPE were discovered in an attic.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service took into account the judge’s statement that the behaviour was an “egregious breach of trust” in respect to her colleagues and the general public.

Sheikh told the tribunal she was “unaware” there was a global or national shortage of equipment as there appeared to be plenty where she worked as locum senior house officer in General Elderly Care at University Hospital Hairmyres in Lanarkshire.