Nearly 100 children suffered harm at the hands of a Great Ormond Street orthopaedic surgeon, a report has concluded.
Yaser Jabbar treated hundreds of children from 2017 to 2022 at Great Ormond Street hospital (Gosh) in London, with independent experts saying in the review that his surgery fell well below the level expected in several areas.
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 overreliance 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.
Assessors carried out clinical case reviews for all 789 of Jabbar’s patients and found a total of 94 came to harm. Of those, 36 suffered severe harm while under the care of the surgeon, who worked on lower limb reconstruction.
A further 39 patients came to moderate harm and 19 patients came to mild harm. The study also reported that 642 patients did not come to harm that could be attributable to the surgeon.
James Wood, of Great Yarmouth, is among those who suffered ‘severe’ harm and was subjected to an ‘unacceptable’ standard of surgery. Photograph: Family Handout/PA
Jabbar is understood to live abroad and no longer has a licence to practise medicine in the UK. Matthew Shaw, the 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.”