Dr Jean-Pierre (J-P) William Gerard van Besouw

Education and qualifications

Professional life and career

Postgraduate career

After graduation van Besouw undertook house jobs at the Royal Berkshire Hospital and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. His next two posts were at Senior House Officer grade, first in anaesthetics at St Bartholomew’s Hospital from August 1982 to July 1983, and secondly in medicine, intensive care and anaesthetics at Whittington Hospital for 17 months ending December 1984. In January 1985 he was appointed Registrar in anaesthetics on the St George’s Hospital rotation, which lasted until March 1987, including a sojourn as Senior Registrar for the second half of 1986 at the Royal Perth Hospital, Australia. Promotion to Senior Registrar at St Bartholomew’s Hospital came in April 1987; this post included duties at Whipps Cross Hospital. Finally in 1990 he was appointed a Consultant Cardiac Anaesthetist at St George’s Hospital, in which post he remained until curtailed by ill health in 2016.

Professional interests and activities

Van Besouw soon developed a special interest in anaesthesia and intensive care for patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. Most of the journal articles to which he contributed from the 1980s to 2016 were on this topic. At St George’s he was very much involved in early work on transcatheter aortic valve insertions and in developing the cardiac intensive care unit. Also Hon. Senior Lecturer at St George’s University Hospitals, he was appointed Head of its School of Anaesthesia from 2002 to 2008. He served as Secretary for the Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthetists (ACTA), followed by being its President for 2007-09. For the Department of Health he served on the cardiac workforce review team for 2008-10.

As regards the Royal College of Anaesthetists, he was admitted in 1997 as a member of the Board of Examiners in 1997, and by 2006 was Chair of the Primary Exam. He was Regional Adviser (South Thames West) from 2003 to 2006. In 2008 he was elected to the Council, in which he rapidly progressed to become Chairman of the Examinations Committee in 2009 and he was elected Vice-President in 2010. Finally he was elected President in 2012, leading the College until 2015. During this period he was Vice Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges 2013-15, launched the College’s vision document on Perioperative Medicine in 2014, and drove quality improvement culminating in the introduction of the Anaesthesia Clinical Services Accreditation scheme.

Additionally, van Besouw served on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Anaesthesia until 2015. He was also elected a staff governor to St George’s Hospital in 2014, providing advice for its reorganisation into an NHS Foundation Trust, achieved in February 2015.

He received the following honours: Honorary Membership of ACTA, elected FRCP Edinburgh 2012, Hon. FRCS 2013, Hon. FCAI 2015.
  

Other biographical information

A tall man with an easy going personality and good sense of humour, ‘J-P’ was popular both nationally and internationally. He was a keen follower of rugby (especially Leicester Tigers), and enjoyed travel and gardening. In 1987 he married Liliane Field, a medical doctor, who also became a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, and later worked for the Medical Protection Society as a medico-legal adviser; they had three children. Sadly he succumbed to a brain tumour in 2017, after bearing this and its treatment with great fortitude for nearly two years

Author and sources

Author: 

Dr Alistair McKenzie

Sources and comments:

[1] Dr van Besouw’s self submitted biographical college “Boulton form” dated 1988.
[2] Mahony C. Obituary BMJ 2017; 358: j4103 doi.
[3] Brennan L. Dr Jean-Pierre van Besouw 1957-2017, RCoA Bulletin 2017; 105: 9.
[4] Medical Directories.
[5] Cashman J. Obituary in RCSEng. Plarr’s Lives (accessed online 8 May 2024).