‘I’m sorry’: hospital boss wishes he’d stopped rogue surgeon sooner

The chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital said he is “deeply sorry”, after an internal report revealed a rogue surgeon harmed more than a quarter of the children he operated on.

Matthew Shaw’s apology to families comes before the publication of a major review this week, which will set out the full scale of botched operations carried out by the orthopaedic surgeon Yaser Jabbar.

The review of Jabbar’s care will confirm that of the 333 children he performed surgery on during a six-year period, 91 were harmed — representing 27% of his surgical patients.

One child had a leg amputated, another may need to have an amputation in the future, while others have been left with chronic pain from nerve damage and debilitating deformities.

“I wish we could have stopped him earlier,” said Shaw, who is leaving Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in April, after six years in charge.

He also apologised to whistleblowers who helped to expose the scandal, and warned of weaknesses in the wider NHS that meant rogue surgeons like Jabbar, working in highly specialised areas, could be going under the radar.

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Source: The Times, 24 January 2026