Meet Dr Tim Meek, Honorary Secretary and President Elect
Dr Tim Meek is a consultant anaesthetist at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. He is the Honorary Secretary and President-Elect of the Association. His clinical interest is obstetric anaesthesia.
Why did you stand for election to board?
I’ve always been involved in patient safety and my first contact with the Association at board level was when I co-wrote and then co-revised the first ever LA toxicity guidelines in 2007 and 2010 respectively. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the ethos and the support that I found at the Association, so I stood for election in 2014 and the rest is history!
I count myself very lucky to work in a great department, surrounded by talented and diversely-skilled colleagues.
Why did you decide to become an anaesthetist / doctor?
I was first attracted to anaesthesia by the gear. My dad was an engineer, and I spent a lot of my childhood in his workshop. Lathes and milling machines were my toys and I was forever making things, pulling things to bits, rebuilding them, modifying them. So, I have an affinity for machinery. When I was in theatre during my third medical school surgical attachment, I just wanted to know what was under the hood of the Boyle’s machine and how a vaporiser worked, and so the die was cast. What kept me engrossed in the specialty once I’d started was the constant forward motion of the day, the instant feedback you get when you give a drug or turn a dial. I could never sit in a clinic or spend all day on a ward round. I guess I have a short attention span…
What do you like the most about your job?
If you’d asked me ten or twenty years ago, you’d have got a different answer. But now, I’ve reached the stage where most of what I do clinically is hard-wired, but what I like most now, what keeps me coming back to work are the people I meet and work with every day: the teams and the colleagues I work with in theatre and delivery suite and the people I meet in the corridor. I count myself very lucky to work in a great department, surrounded by talented and diversely-skilled colleagues. I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the NHS can be a pretty austere place to work right now, but even on the worst day, by the time I’ve made my way from the changing rooms to my theatre (usually via the kitchen) and I’ve said hello to a dozen or so people, I’m all set.
Who or what inspires you to do your best work?
“Treat every patient as if they were your friend” is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard. Just imagine that terrified, bewildered, vulnerable person in front of you is your mum, dad, child, partner. How would you want their anaesthetist to treat them? I always try to hold that thought.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I’d like to say fine wine, fast cars and international diplomacy, but in reality, it’s family stuff: homework, Sunday football, the university run, days out. Not much of my time is free! And after 30 years of doing a job that confines me to one room all day, increasingly I find I want to be out in the real world, doing something. It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering; I’m quite happy taming the garden or sitting in the sun on the patio reading a book. I’m quite low maintenance really. But, if time and money weren’t rationed, drop me somewhere iconic and awe-inspiring as a gateway to adventure – Circular Quay in Sydney, New York’s Liberty Island or the National Mall in DC would be top picks (so maybe I’m not so low maintenance after all).
Social media handles:
@drtimmeek – I’m an infrequent and conservative (small ‘c’) tweeter, but I am occasionally tempted into the open.