Other hospitals warned over children’s surgeon Yaser Jabbar

Hospitals need to review any child treated by bone surgeon Yaser Jabbar, a solicitor representing affected families has told the BBC.

The lower limb reconstruction surgeon worked at private hospital The Portland, as well as seeing NHS patients at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust Hospitals and Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) in London.

A damning independent report focusing on the orthopaedic unit at Gosh has already been carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS).

Gosh is reviewing each of the 721 patients involved – so far 39 cases have been investigated. Of those, 22 children came to some degree of harm, including lifelong pain, injury and amputation.

The RCS report – first leaked to The Sunday Times earlier this month – concluded that children had “incorrect” and “unsuitable” surgery – leaving many with life-altering conditions and suffering from severe harm.

Now solicitors for the families are calling for Chelsea and Westminster – where Mr Jabbar worked before Gosh – to also launch an independent review into the operations he conducted.

Charlotte Cooper, from the legal firm Leigh Day which is representing some families, told the BBC: “The scoop of the review by Great Ormond Street Hospital and the sheer number of families involved calls into question Mr Jabbar’s work in its totality.

“Therefore I would definitely welcome Chelsea and Westminster and any other hospitals where he might have practised to be looking at their own cases and carrying out their own independent reviews.”

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital said: “We recognise that our patients and their families may have concerns about this doctor. We are taking appropriate action to address these concerns.”

A Gosh spokesperson said the trust wished to convey its “sincere apologies” and added: “From Monday we will be writing to all patients and families who are part of this [the RCS] review, to ask if and how they want to receive a copy of the report. We understand that some families may not want to receive the report.”

Gosh first asked the RCS to review the paediatric orthopaedic service in 2022, after becoming aware of concerns from patients’ families and staff.

As part of its review, the RCS raised concerns about the surgeon and the wider culture within the service, prompting Gosh to initiate the patient reviews from April this year, the hospital said.

The process will last 18 months and will be undertaken by five external paediatric orthopaedic surgical consultants.

In addition, 456 cases have been looked at by a senior nurse and paediatrician and have not been categorised as needing urgent attention.

The RCS report also raised concerns about managers at the hospital failing to act when concerns were raised by staff about Mr Jabbar’s conduct.

Gosh said that senior managers at the trust were only made aware of concerns in 2022 and, “despite thorough investigations”, no records of concerns by staff being made prior to this have been found. Gosh said it had commissioned the external RCS review within 18 days of senior managers being made aware.

The RCS report also concluded that a leg-straightening and lengthening surgery conducted by Mr Jabbar on one patient was “incorrect and unsuitable”.

One child – George Davison – had surgery on his club hand. Following the surgery his arm has been left deformed and he sufferers from chronic pain.

His dad Mark Harvey told BBC Breakfast: “He made you feel very special because he would come to see us quite often. And now it turns out that was just a cover-up for the mistakes he made. We put a lot of trust in the hospital and we feel very, very let down.”

Mr Jabbar has not had a licence to practise medicine in the UK since 8 January. He has not responded to the BBCs request for comment.