World-famous children’s hospital investigate hundreds of suspect operations

Great Ormond Street Hospital for children in London has launched an urgent review of 721 operations performed by Yaser Jabbar, an orthopaedic surgeon, after the Sunday Times reported that in many cases children were left in pain, with permanent deformities or needing further surgery. In other cases the surgery was unnecessary, according to a review of Jabbar’s work by the Royal College of Surgeons. In one, a child had to have a leg amputated. The hospital has apologised to the families of the children concerned for their “poor care” – but is itself accused in the RCS review of allowing a “political” work culture to develop in which parents’ concerns weren’t taken seriously. When one of Jabbar’s colleagues, a female surgeon who’d worked with him, raised the alarm in 2022, he was given an 11-month sabbatical on full pay. He’s now working – still as a surgeon – in Dubai.