Yaser Jabbar

Yaser Jabbar is an orthopaedic surgeon. After graduating from St. George's medical school at the University of London in 2004, his surgical training and surgical practice has been predominately based in the United Kingdom. As of January 2024, Jabbar no longer has a licence to practise in the UK, and has been subject to allegations of surgical malpractice with multiple past and ongoing investigations into his surgical practice and professional conduct. As of September 2024, Jabbar is believed to be working in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Education and professional experience Jabbar gained his primary medical qualification from St. George's University of London in 2004. He received provisional registration with the General Medical Council (GMC) in July 2004, extended to full registration in August 2005, allowing him to practise medicine in the United Kingdom.

Jabbar held a position as a junior doctor in Oxford but was not accepted onto the orthopaedic training scheme. He trained in orthopaedic surgery at hospitals in London, with further training at the University of Cardiff where he completed an MSc in Orthopaedic Engineering, before working for a year at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney. On returning to the UK, Jabbar worked at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and in December 2014, Jabbar received registration on the GMC's Specialist Registrar, as a consultant in trauma and orthopaedic surgery.

In 2021 Sarah McMahon, a consultant at the hospital, began seeing Jabbar's patients while Jabbar was on leave. McMahon was alarmed by the care that the patients had received and raised concerns with the trust. Jabbar submitted counterclaims against McMahon but management failed to share the details of those counter complaints until October 2024. The hospital found Jabbar's complaints unfounded.

In September 2022, whilst still working with children at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, Jabbar was placed on eleven months of unpaid sabbatical leave while the Royal College of Surgeons began a review into Jabbar's surgical practice at the hospital.

In September 2024, The Times newspaper obtained a copy of the Royal College of Surgeons report and published details of the investigation's findings. The hospital decided to conduct an independent review of all 789 of Jabbar's patients, this began in February 2024. In September 2024, 39 cases had been reviewed with 22 children having been harmed, and a further 13 were classified as having suffered "severe harm" with potentially lifelong injuries as a result. One child harmed was only four months of age during surgery. At least one child had to have a leg amputation following Jabbar's surgery, with another child at risk of amputation if the work of other surgeons cannot save the limb. In other cases, children have been left with a disparity in leg length by as much as , with children living with chronic pain even years after surgery and others having to be repeatedly operated on due to muscle damage, nerve injuries and permanent deformities after surgery. In some instances Jabbar failed to obtain essential imaging before performing surgery. Many felt that the medical notes wouldn't cover the daily pain and mental anguish their children dealt with following their discharge from Jabber's care. In one patients case, the individual report that the family were given claimed that their daughter had undergone 6 surgeries but the family claimed she had undergone 10.

Criticism of Great Ormond Street Hospital Beyond Jabbar's behaviour and care, the Royal College of Surgeons report was highly critical of the working environment at the hospital, with staff and patients feeling their concerns were not listened to, and the report accusing the hospital of being run like a "political organisation".

One family raised concerns about Jabbar to one of his colleges after Jabbar used a different frame in a surgery than the one that they were told would be used. They attempted to raise concerns with one of Jabbar's colleges, who told them Jabbar was the "frame guy" and that he knew what he was doing. They accused the hospital of failing their duty of care and having a culture that refused to acknowledge that it was possible to make mistakes.