Hospitals must be “more curious” to identify rogue surgeons, NHS chief says

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Source: BMJ

Original: http://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj.s248.short?rss=1...

Published: 2026-02-05T08:26:04-08:00

The head of NHS England, Jim Mackey, has declared that hospital trusts must be "more keen" to identify rogue surgeons and react more quickly to suspicions of patient harm[1]. His comments came in response to a report about orthopedic surgeon Yaser Jabbar of Great Ormond Street Hospital, whose treatment harmed almost 100 children[2][5]. Mackey criticized hospital boards for not being "curious enough" and too readily trusting surgeons' performance data without further investigation[1]. He said hospital executive teams should be "more willing to challenge" surgeons and GPs when there is suspicion of patient harm[1]. A report on Jabbar revealed that of the 789 children he treated, 94 children suffered harm, of which 36 cases were classified as "severe harm"[5]. NHS England has written to the Royal Colleges of Physicians to highlight "emerging evidence" of more widespread harm in surgical negligence[1].