about us
The European Federation of Salaried Doctors (FEMS) was established in 1964 under the name of "European Federation of the Doctors of Communities", and adopted its current denomination in 1981. It is governed by statutes registered in France according to the regulation of the international associations.
Members of the Federation are representatives of trade unions and medical associations from EU member states, but it is also open to representatives from countries outside the EU.
Its goal is to defend at European level the moral and material interests of doctors working under administrative subordination, to ensure these doctors and their patients the best possible level of working conditions, decent salaries, continuous professional development, diagnostic and therapeutic independence with respect to administrations, whose exclusively economic point of view can sometimes be in conflict with the principles of a quality health system and correct medicine.
The Federation has played a significant role to obtain that the Directives of 1975 on free movement of doctors, which at the beginning were to understand only the liberal doctors, are established by taking account allforms of medical practrice, including salaried medicine.
The FEMS always thought that salaried medicine was neither in opposition nor an alternative to liberal medicine, but was complementary.
For this reason work and statement were carried out, inter alia on:
-
a definition of salaried medicine
-
conditions of exercise and the European Charter of the Salaried Doctors, endorsed later by the Standing Committee of the European Doctors
-
methods to ensure the quality of the medical acts
-
practical and deontological methods of the possible strikes
-
the role of doctors in management
- hospital structural and process standards
-
working time/ compliance with the Labour Code
-
on-call duties and obligations
-
fair remuneration for the physicians
-
medical demography
-
recognition of professional qualifications
-
healthcare workers
-
taskshifting
-
female medical profession
-
the role of young doctors in the hospitals
-
doctors' crossborder migration
-
crossborder healthcare
-
medical advertising in various European countries
-
hospital departments in various European countries
-
exchange of experience among European countries
-
support of national trade unions in their struggle for better working conditions.
This work was published progressively and sent to the Member Associations and many institutions or personalities dealing with health problems at the national or European level. It is available on this website.
The FEMS works in close cooperation with the UEMS (European Union of Medical Specialists) , the AEMH (European Association of Senior Hospital Physicians), the EJD (European Junior Doctors) and takes part as Observer in the CPME (Standing Committee of the European Doctors), and in the Forum of National Medical Associations and the WHO, which allows a more general vision of problems of the medical profession.
The official languages of FEMS are French and English.