Attiya Sheikh

Introduction

Dr Attiya Sheikh is a doctor who was registered with the General Medical Council under the number 6079351 and who is now known for a criminal conviction that ended her medical career. In May 2025 she was convicted at Paisley Sheriff Court of resetting — handling — a quantity of personal protective equipment that was the property of NHS Scotland and that had been dishonestly appropriated during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was later sentenced to imprisonment, and in February 2026 a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service tribunal directed that her name be erased from the medical register. Her case stands out among fitness-to-practise outcomes because it rests not on allegations tested before a tribunal panel but on a conviction already recorded by a criminal court.

Background Information

Public information about Dr Sheikh’s life and career is limited, and this page draws on a single source: the published MPTS determination from her substantive hearing. That determination records that she was a doctor on the register of the General Medical Council, holding the registration number 6079351, and that the conduct which led to her conviction took place between 30 May 2020 and 7 October 2020 — the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when personal protective equipment was a critical and scarce resource for the health service. The determination also records the tribunal’s view that her offending was connected to her role as a doctor. It does not set out her speciality, her workplace or her personal history, and nothing of that kind should be inferred from this page.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Her conviction at Paisley Sheriff Court is a matter of court record. The tribunal’s impairment finding is a regulatory determination of the MPTS. Nothing on this page is an unproven allegation unless the determination says a charge was not proved.

On 16 May 2025, at Paisley Sheriff Court, Dr Sheikh was convicted of resetting — an offence the determination renders in English terms as handling — a quantity of personal protective equipment, the property of NHS Scotland, between 30 May 2020 and 7 October 2020, the same having been dishonestly appropriated by persons unknown. In other words, a court convicted her of handling protective equipment stolen from the NHS in Scotland during the pandemic. On 18 July 2025 she was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment.

The conviction then came before the MPTS at a substantive hearing that began on 9 February 2026 and ended on 10 February 2026. The tribunal found that Dr Sheikh’s fitness to practise was impaired by reason of her conviction, and it placed the conviction at the higher end of the spectrum of seriousness. In support of that assessment it cited the fact that the offending was premeditated and persistent over a period of six months; that it was connected to her professional role as a doctor; that it involved interference with the supply of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic; and that it had resulted in a custodial sentence.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The consequences that followed the conviction came from two directions: the criminal courts and the regulator. The criminal court imposed the ten-month prison sentence in July 2025. The tribunal, for its part, found that Dr Sheikh had shown no meaningful insight or remediation, and it concluded that she posed a high current and ongoing risk to all three limbs of public protection. On that basis it found her behaviour fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.

On 10 February 2026 the tribunal directed that Dr Sheikh’s name be erased from the medical register, and it imposed an immediate order — an order of suspension, pending the substantive direction taking effect — so that she would not be free to practise in the interim. The determination records aggravating factors that shaped this outcome: premeditated behaviour; a reckless disregard for patient safety or professional standards, in terms of interfering with the supply of PPE; and putting her own interests before those of patients.

Current Status

As of the determination dated 10 February 2026, Dr Sheikh has been struck off the medical register. Erasure means she is no longer permitted to practise her profession in the United Kingdom. The immediate order meant the direction did not sit idle while appeal or effective-date periods ran: she was suspended pending the erasure taking effect. An erasure can be reviewed after a minimum of five years, but is otherwise indefinite, so any return to the register remains a distant and uncertain possibility rather than an expectation.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The practical effect of the case is the end of Dr Sheikh’s medical career in the United Kingdom. A ten-month custodial sentence and erasure from the register together remove both her liberty for the term of the sentence and her professional identity indefinitely, subject only to the possibility of a review after five years. The tribunal did record one matter in her favour: there was no evidence that she had behaved in a similar way before or since May to October 2020. That finding, however, did not soften the tribunal’s overall judgement that her dishonesty in the midst of a public-health emergency, in conduct tied to her own profession, was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.

Sources

• MedicWatch, “Attiya Sheikh — Struck off the register · 10 February 2026”, 10 February 2026.source