GAT Committee

The Committee comprises elected members, the AAGBI Honorary Secretary and co-opted members including trainee representatives from Royal College Council, the BMA and the Anaesthetists in Training in Ireland Group. Officers are elected annually by the Committee.

The Committee conducts its day-to-day business electronically but meets four times a year for a group discussion and formal meeting. During these meetings, reports are received from committees and working parties upon which GAT has representation; and current projects are discussed, such as the ASM, GAT Handbook, and annual surveys.

Officers
Elected Members
Co-opted
AAGBI Council Representative

Officers

Dr Chris Meadows - Chairman

SpR, South East Thames rotation

Chris trained at The London Hospital Medical College and, after completing MRCP in North East London, crossed the river and is currently a senior registrar on the South East Thames rotation, holding training numbers in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine.  He was elected on to the GAT Committee in June 2004, held the position of Vice-Chairman from 2005, and was elected to the Chair in 2007.  He currently sits on AAGBI Council, Advisory and the Finance Committee but has previously represented GAT members on the Royal College of Anaesthetists’ Council and Committees.  He is also the anaesthetic trainee representative sitting on the Board of the Federation of Independent Practitioner Organisations.  His main areas of focus have included fatigue and the anaesthetist, responding to the changes accompanying MMC and contributing to the Tooke inquiry, and co-ordinating the GAT Committee’s response to the Donaldson Report.  Although GAT has always had excellent regional representation at Committee level, Chris hopes to strengthen those links and looks forward to greater communication with, and feedback to, trainee members of the AAGBI.  He is happily married to his wife, a surgeon.

Dr Felicity Howard (Honorary Secretary)

SpR, Wales

Felicity left her London roots for the Welsh Principality to do her medical training. On graduation day she told her mum “I’ll never be an anaesthetist.” Fortunately she came to see the error of her ways and was swiftly guided towards the light of the laryngoscope.

She has done her anaesthetic training in Swansea and South West Wales. From September you will find her back in the city fulfilling her ambition to do a Paediatric Anaesthetic SpR job in Great Ormond Street Hospital.

She joined the GAT Committee in 2006, and is the Honorary Secretary and a member of the Editorial Board of “Anaesthesia”. She also tries to keep the GAT web pages up-to-date. She is keen to ensure that Anaesthesia remains a productive specialty in which the trainee voice continues to be taken seriously.

She is happily married to Martin, a GP and the only Welshman who can’t sing. They are the proud owners of 2 adorable house-rabbits called Poppy and Maisie. Her other ambition is to run the London Marathon.

Dr Paul Johnston - Vice Chairman

SpR, Northern Ireland

Paul is currently an anaesthetic trainee in Northern Ireland with an interest in pain medicine and intensive care medicine. He has thus far undertaken all of his anaesthetic training within the Northern Ireland system. As such he appreciated the need to expand the insular nature of his anaesthetic experiences. He first became a co-opted member of the GAT Committee in 2004 and was elected to the Committee the following year. Since then he has been involved in various roles as a Committee member, most recently as GAT seminars co-ordinator. He now holds the position of Vice Chairman and is looking forward to representing the trainees of our specialty at a national level. This will include acting as a trainee voice on RCoA Council.

Elected Members

Dr Rob Broomhead

SpR, North Thames region          

Rob was elected to the GAT committee in 2007. He did his medical training in Leeds before slowly meandering south to settle in London. He is now an Anaesthetic SpR on the North Thames Rotation and currently works at the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead.

He is interested in postgraduate education, especially in maintaining standards in anaesthesia in the forthcoming ST "system". He is undertaking an MSc in Medical Education to add some knowledge to his existing enthusiasm in this subject.

He loves living in London, but unlike Felicity has NO intention of doing anything as stupid as running the marathon!

Dr Mark Hearn

SpR, North Thames region

Mark is currently a Year 4 SpR in the North Central Thames region and is back in London again after a period outside. He has interests in all sorts of things both anaesthetics related and not. He feels that the way to influence our profession and the NHS for the best is to get involved in medical politics. To this end he currently represents the GAT Committee on the AAGBI Safety Committee, the RCoA Training Committee and the BMA's Anaesthetics Sub-Committee and Joint Specialty Trainee Committee.

Dr Adam Paul

SpR, Edinburgh

Adam is a 4th year registrar in the South East Scotland Program. Initially elected in June 2006, he has just returned from a year in Auckland, so can provide paperwork advice to anyone thinking of going away!

His interests are wide but include medical education and simulation, regional anaesthesia and ultrasound use, and emergency anaesthesia. Adam feels that as the NHS becomes increasingly devolved, it is important that the AAGBI remains representative of all geographic areas and that members are aware of changes throughout the UK.

Adam is currently co-opted onto the RCoA Scottish Board and the Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality.

Dr Michael Parris

SpR, Oxford region

Michael was elected to the GAT Committee in 2005 having served for a year as a co-opted member.  He is currently a Specialist Registrar in the Oxford Deanery.

Michael is responsible for the annual GAT training survey and sits on the AAGBI Education Committee, the Working Party for the Transfer of Patients between Hospitals and the RCoA - Intensive Care Society Trainees Committee.

Having trained and worked in London for eight years, Michael spent 4 years as an SHO in Cornwall before moving to Oxford via Manchester, home to his beloved Manchester United.

Dr Liz Shewry

SpR, Wessex Rotation


After training in Cardiff, Liz spent a year in Perth, WA and then returned (somewhat reluctantly!) to begin a medical rotation. She moved to Wessex to undertake her anaesthetic training and is currently an SpR in Southampton, living in Bournemouth.

Liz is an ardent supporter of GAT and was elected onto the GAT committee in June 2006. She hopes to continue to be involved for some time. She is currently revising the 'SHO Survival Guide' in light of the forthcoming career pathway changes and the introduction of run-through training.

Liz sits on the RCoA Professional Standards Committee and the AAGBI Standards Committee. She is also co-opted to the BMA JDC Working Party on Transfers, the AAGBI Working Party on Pre-Hospital Anaesthesia and the National Reference Panel for Anaesthetic Practitioners. She will be taking over the GAT Annual Survey later this year.

Liz is interested in medical education and spending as much time on the beach as possible!

Dr Manu Shankar Hari                    

SpR, South East Thames region       

Manu completed his basic medical training in India and is currently a 4th year Anaesthetic SpR on the South-East Thames rotation and an ICM trainee with the pan-London Deanery. He believes that involvement in medical politics, team working and continuing dialogue and negotiations with the relevant organisations is ‘the’ way to achieve change in the working lives of trainee anaesthetists. He was elected onto the GAT Committee in June 2007 and represents GAT on the International Relations Committee and the SCATA Committee.

Dr Alex Ward                                 

Alex is a soon to be an ‘ST2’ in MMC training in Anaesthesia. She graduated from the University of Dundee and moved to Middlesbrough and Stockton before starting SHO jobs in Newcastle and Sunderland.
 
She is fairly new to professional committees but has been active member of sports and social committees throughout University. She is the GAT representative on the Library, Museums and Archives Committee, and the Research Committee at the Association of Anaesthetists.

Dr Susan Williams

SpR, South Wales

This is Susan's third term of office on the GAT committee.  Her previous commitments have involved representation on the Anaesthetic Practioner Project, the Anaesthetic Standards Committee and Editor of the GAT Handbook 2007-2008.

She currently trains on a less than full time (LTFT) basis, juggling family life with training in Anaesthetics.  She continues to be the RCOA LTFT Trainee Representative and is also this year representing anaesthetic trainees on the Welfare Committee and the soon-to-be commenced RCOA Trainee Advisory Group. 

Co-opted

Dr Kate Prior (BMA JDC Committee)

Dr Liz Clark (ASM 2008 Liverpool Representative)

Dr Lindsay Parker (ASM 2008 Liverpool Representative)

Dr James Shannon (Anaesthetist in Training in Ireland Representative) Dublin

Dr Ramani Moonesinghe (RCoA Council Trainee Representative)

AAGBI Council Representative

Dr Leslie Gemmell (Honorary Secretary Elect)

How to contact us:
By email: gat@aagbi.org
By post: GAT, 21 Portland Place, London, W1B 1PY
By phone: 020 7631 1650
By fax: 020 7631 4352