NHS

National Health Service European Office

The NHS (National Health Service) European Office is the U.K. member of HOSPEEM. Based in Brussels since 2007, the NHS European office is part of the NHS Confederation, the representative body for the range of NHS organisations in England. The NHS Confederation brings together and speaks on behalf of more than 560 NHS organisations which plan, commission and provide healthcare for the people of England. The NHS is the biggest employer in the UK, employing over a million staff in England alone.
As a major employer, the NHS is particularly impacted by employment legislation and policy, for example on health and safety and work/life balance, and has contributed actively to HOSPEEM’s social dialogue with EPSU and liaison with the European Commission and Parliament on these topics. Like other healthcare employers across Europe, the NHS faces challenges such as an ageing population, ageing workforce, rising demand and staff shortages, and we find sharing approaches and solutions to these challenges with other European healthcare employers extremely valuable. We have also both contributed to and learnt a great deal from HOSPEEM and EPSU’s successful recent projects promoting continuing professional development and lifelong learning for healthcare staff, and tackling work-related stress and musculo-skeletal problems.
Following the UK referendum vote to leave the EU, the Office is now very closely involved in raising awareness of the impact of « Brexit » on patients, healthcare employers , commissioners, providers and researchers and on public health across the EU, for the benefit of both EU and UK citizens and healthcare systems. We are actively briefing and campaigning for a mutually beneficial outcome from the Brexit negotiations