Health and Social Services
Health and Social Services (HSS) is a large and diverse sector that encompasses a wide range of services including hospitals, child care, community health services, social work and care homes for older and disabled people. EPSU represents health and social services workers across Europe, including nurses, health care assistants, midwives, doctors, elderly and child care workers, social workers, laboratory staff, hospital cleaners and medical secretaries. We organise in public, non-for-profit and private services.
EPSU is the recognised European social partner organisation for workers in the hospital and health care sector throughout the European Union.
Adam Rogalewski is the EPSU Policy Officer for the sector. The President of the EPSU Standing Committee for Health and Social Services is Kirsi Sillanpää, Tehy, Finland, and the Vice-Presidents are Yolanda Gil of CC.OO (Spain), Gesine Lenkewitz from Ver.di (Germany) and Razvan Gae of Sanitas (Romania). You can get their contact details here.
Find out who is your national EPSU representative for health and services below.
View contactsEPSU-HOSPEEM Project (2017-2018) on CPD and MSD and PSRS@W
Joint EPSU-HOSPEEM Project “Promoting effective recruitment and retention policies for health workers in the EU by ensuring access to CPD and healthy and safe workplaces supportive of patient safety and quality care” (01.02.2017-31.01.2019)
Promoting Social Dialogue in Health Care in Bulgaria
On 2 June 2017 the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Bulgaria, together with , organised a Discussion Forum in Sofia to identify and address the challenges for effective social dialogue in Bulgaria. EPSU and HOSPEEM contributed to the exchange in highlighting the role and illustrating main outcomes of the the EU-level social dialogue in the hospital sector.
Korian Workers are organising across borders
Workers and union representatives in the French social service multinational specialised in elderly care, Korian, met in Brussels, in order to better coordinate their struggles and strategies to secure better pay and conditions for the almost 47.000 workers employed in 4 countries.
EPSU tells Commission: No sale of patients data!
In the last months, the European Commission has launched a public consultation on the transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market. This consultation is aimed at investigating whether there is the need for policy measures that will promote digital innovation for better health and care in Europe.
The Creeping Privatisation of Health Care in the European Union
A new briefing paper of Corporate Europe on the Creeping Privatisation of Health Care in the European Union provides detailed insight in the political and market mechanisms that increase health inequalities and lead to privatization of basic care.
Hospital Social Partners "Working together, learning together - Switching to the learning mode"
On 19 and 20 June 2017, HOSPEEM and EPSU organised the conference “Working together, learning together – Switching to the learning mode” in Amsterdam to deepen their thematic work on continuing professional development (CPD) and life-long learning (LLL).