While the meetings are essential, they need to have a fixed start and a end time, the fixed agenda and the clear context of what outcome is expected. A proper Minutes of Meetings aka MoM should be maintained and follow up should be taken in the next meeting on the actions taken.
When important and long held matters are started taken care of, the meetings starts becoming more and more effective and probably shorter. The meetings should be the place where difficult situations and challenges should be dealt with no matter how uncomfortable the meetings become.
Again, the unnecessary meetings should be avoided and that time rather should go in productive work but that never should mean that meetings should be considered a waste of time. Meetings with the right intentions and clear agenda move the mountains when followed by appropriate actions.