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Saranjit Nandhra v The NHS Tribunal and others
Saranjit Nandhra v The NHS Tribunal and others
XA49/25
Thursday 5 February 2026
10:30 to 13:00 then 14:00 until conclusion
Second Division
To provide NHS dental services, a dentist must be included in the lists of approved dental practitioners maintained by the relevant NHS health board.
The appellant, Saranjit Nandhra, is a dentist. The interested parties to this appeal are Lothian Health Board, Fife Health Board, and Lanarkshire Health Board. The appellant is included in each health board’s list.
However, on 17 May 2025 the NHS Tribunal, a statutory tribunal established by the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 to, inter alia, regulate the inclusion of practitioners on health boards’ lists, determined that the appellant was “unsuitable” to provide NHS dental services and ordered his unconditional disqualification from the interested parties’ lists. This decision has been suspended pending the outcome of this appeal, but if the appellant is unsuccessful he will no longer be able to provide NHS dental services.
The NHS Tribunal determined that the appellant was unsuitable because of his professional conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the tribunal found that the appellant had exploited an emergency payment scheme put in place by the Scottish Government to support NHS dentists during the pandemic. He is said to have done following a change in policy which provided that the amounts received by each practice would not be linked to the number of patients seen. Prior to the change in policy, his practices had prioritised seeing the highest number of patients possible, but after the change was communicated he instructed his colleagues and practices to slow down the number of NHS patients seen. Whilst at no stage did the appellant claim any sum to which he was not legally entitled, the tribunal nevertheless found he had acted against the spirit of the emergency payment scheme and considered this would have caused a detriment to patients through longer waiting lists.
The appellant now appeals to this court, under section 11 of the Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1992, to overturn the tribunal’s decision or to quash the decision and remit the cause back to the tribunal for redetermination on the basis that the tribunal applied the wrong legal test, erred in law in finding him unsuitable, failed to take into account relevant factors, took into account irrelevant factors, proceeded on a misapprehension of the evidence before it, reached a decision on sanction which was irrational and disproportionate, and failed to provide adequate reasons.
The three health boards have entered process as interested parties. They ask the court to uphold the tribunal’s decision.
The reclaiming motion will call before the Second Division on Thursday 5 February 2026 at 10:30am.