Nearly 100 patients suffered harm at the hands of orthopaedic surgeon Yaser Jabbar, a Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) review, released on Thursday, has concluded.
Mr Jabbar, who specialised in lower limb reconstruction, treated hundreds of children between 2017 and 2022.
Of the 94 harmed, 36 children experienced severe harm, while 39 patients sustained moderate harm and 19 suffered mild harm.
The hospital’s review noted that 642 patients under Mr Jabbar’s care did not suffer harm directly attributable to him.
Many patients came to harm or were left in pain, with several going on to need further surgery.
“There were instances of premature removal of fixation devices, the combination of procedures without clear rationale, inadequate counselling on fracture risk, and an over-reliance on junior staff,” the report said.
“There were some serious problems found, including poor planning before surgery, not making the area stable enough, unclear or incomplete notes, and putting implants in the wrong place.
“Other issues were making cuts in the bone at the wrong level or using the wrong method, making decisions that didn’t match what was seen in the scans during surgery, problems with how frames and pins were used, and not involving the wider team when dealing with infections.”
Analysis of the independent expert case reports into the surgeon’s practice “identified that Mr Jabbar was highly inconsistent in his approach to clinical care with recurrent deficiencies in documentation, assessment, and surgical decision-making”, the report said.
Mr Jabbar is understood to live abroad and no longer has a licence to practise medicine in the UK.
Matthew Shaw, chief executive of Gosh said in a statement: “We are profoundly sorry to all the patients and their families who have been affected by the care provided by Mr Jabbar.
“The report we have published today sets out in full what happened, what we found in our review of patients, what we have learnt and what we have done as a consequence.
“We have made significant changes to both the orthopaedic service itself and across the hospital to minimise the chance of something like this happening again. Many of these changes are designed to help spot potential issues before they become a risk to patient care.
“We know this comes too late for the families affected by this issue, but we are committed to ensuring our hospital is a better and safer place for all current and future patients.”
