Employee Representation
UMC Utrecht has the following formal employee-representation bodies:
Works Council
UMC Utrecht staff members are represented in a Works Council. The Works Council meets weekly, alternating between plenary and committee meetings. Once every six weeks, the Works Council meets with the director and chair of the Executive Board. The Works Council reports to UMC Utrecht staff members on activities and results in an annual report on Connect, the UMC Utrecht intranet.
Works Council members at UMC Utrecht serve for a three-year term. Elections were held in April 2024. 17 members were re-elected, and 8 new members joined. In the course of 2024, one member left due to early retirement, upon which the deputy candidate took the vacant seat. The Daily Management team (chair, vice chair, secretary and deputy secretary) coordinates the activities of the Works Council and holds agenda meetings with the director. The committees prepare documents, hold informal meetings with managers, and consult staff members. Three division/department committees handle dossiers from the divisions and departments, and four theme committees focus on specific topics. Each Works Council member sits on at least one division/department committee and one theme committee. The Works Council is supported by a Staff Representation office of three members.
The three division/department committees are:
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Committee 1: Brain division, Internal Medicine and Dermatology division, Julius Center, Image and Oncology division, Information Supply and Finance department, Information Technology department, and the Education Center
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Committee 2: Pediatric division, Laboratories division, Pharmacy and Biomedical Genetics, Women & Baby division, Strategy and Policy department, Staff and Organization department, Quality and Patient Safety department, and the Marketing and Communication department
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Committee 3: Heart and Lung division, Surgery Specialties division, and Vital Functions division, Service Company department, Buildings and Accommodation department
The four theme committees are:
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Finance and Strategic Policy
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Social Policy and Working Conditions
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Safety, Health, Welfare & Environment
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Education and Research
The Works Council is furthermore represented in a number of committees and bodies within UMC Utrecht by Works Council members or people with specific expertise. Examples include the Committee for unwanted Behavior, the UMC Utrecht staff provident fund, and the Advice Committee for Social Guidance.
Some of the important topics that were handled by the Works Council in 2024 were: The Change Plan for Future-proof Nursing for various divisions, Vacancies and Temporary Staff (PNIL) board, the Efficiency Roadmap, Quartermaster and Chief Procurement Officer, Real Estate master plan, Buildings and Area Development, Draft Outline of the New Organizational Structure of UMC Utrecht, Change Proposal and preparations for Change Plan of the Information Technology department. The Works Council also agreed to various timetable adjustments, labor-market allowances, and action plans for Risk Inventories and Evaluations (RI&Es). The Works Council was closely involved in the Proeftuin Duurzaam Vervoer (sustainable-transport pilot group), and various Works Council members took part in the NFU conference on September 3, 2024 on sustainability.
Education and Research Council (E&R council) and Student Representative Council
The Education and Research council (E&R council) is our faculty council and is the statutory body for staff representation with regard to academic education and research at UMC Utrecht. The E&R Council’s rights are based on the Law on Higher Education and Scientific Research (WHW in Dutch).
The E&R Council has eighteen seats. These include nine seats for UMC Utrecht employees (together referred to as the ‘E&R committee’) and nine seats for students who together form the Student Representative Council (SRC). The SRC represents students from all courses at the Medical faculty: Medicine, Biomedical Sciences (BMS)/Biomedische Wetenschappen (BMW), Clinical Health Sciences (CHS)/Klinische Gezondheidswetenschappen (KGW), Medical Humanities (MH), and Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS). Not all of the seats are filled at all times. The Education and Research committee and the SRC meet and discuss separately every fortnight, and together every four weeks. The Education and Research committee consists of five Works Council members and four additional members (who work as university lecturers or researchers), sit for a three-year term. The students sit for one year. New elections took place in 2024 for the E&R council and the Works Council. A new SRC was also elected.
The daily management team of the E&R council consists of two staff members and two students and is elected annually by the council in September. The chair of the E&R council as well as the chair(s) of the SRC are students. The daily administration, together with the official secretary, coordinates the work of the E&R council and conducts agenda consultations with the dean, the vice-dean for Education, and the vice-dean for Research. There are three permanent committees, namely for Education, Research, and Strategy & Finance, which prepare dossiers, hold informal meetings with the dossier owners, and consult with staff and/or students. Each E&R-council or SRC member sits on one committee.
The E&R Council looks at UMC Utrecht's policy on academic education and research. In 2024, the E&R Council consulted at least 5 times with the dean and vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Utrecht University on Education and Research topics. The SRC looks in particular at educational policy.
In 2024, the focal point for the SRC was ‘Sustainability’. Within this scope, they participated in reflections on how sustainability could be attained in the practical education of BMS, and good results were achieved. A policy was for instance put in place for the sustainable use of gloves in the BMS course, and the SRC helped to reflect on the layout and content of the ‘Oog voor Impact’ (‘Eye on Impact’) course and sustainable and fair research practices.
In 2024, the E&R Council gave specific attention to: the wellbeing of students and PhDs (recording of lectures), quality funds for education, admission of Medical students with the return of the random-draw opportunity, intake in Clinical Health Sciences (CHS) and MH, the composition of educational committees, the quality guide, the revising of the Medical curriculum, starter grants for researchers, the transformation towards a new organizational structure and the impact thereof on education and research, Education and Examination regulations, the main lines of faculty budget, and the UMC budget. The Student Representative Council proposed in the academic year 2023-2024 to change the name of the faculty to the Faculty of Medical Sciences, so that all programs can recognize themselves in the name. The Board of Governors of Utrecht University agreed to the proposal in 2024. The name change is expected to come about in September 2025.
Client Council
UMC Utrecht has its own Client Council by virtue of the Law on client representation in health-care institutions (WMCZ). The Client Council advises the Executive Board on anything that affects the interests of patients at UMC Utrecht. The Board has also been asked to help promote patient participation within UMC Utrecht. The aim is to involve hospital patients in a far broader sense than just through the Client Council in anything that happens at UMC Utrecht. The Client Council works according to a longterm plan entitled ‘More person, less patient: From patient participation to person-oriented care’. The Client Council each year publishes an annual report on the UMC Utrecht website.
The Client Council gathers monthly for a plenary meeting, which is joined every two months by a member of the Executive Board. Monthly consultations also take place with (the Chair of) the Executive Board and (the Chair of) the Client Council. The Client Council further meets twice a year with the Supervisory Board, and a member of the Supervisory Board nominated by the Client Council regularly joins the plenary meeting. In addition, smaller group (portfolio) consultations took place on specific topics. Members of the Client Council also participate in a large number of consultations, projects, and programs at UMC Utrecht to explain and keep an eye on the patient’s point of view.
Members of the Client Council are members in their own personal capacity. New members are recruited by UMC Utrecht, and after a proposal from the Client Council, are appointed by the Executive Board. Each member of the Client Council may serve a maximum of two four-year terms. A chair and an official secretary are in charge of meeting agendas and ensure that all commitments are fulfilled.
In 2024, the Client Council implemented the longterm plan of 2020-2024. Activities focused inter alia on:
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Improving dialog/communication with patients, with a focus on functional illiteracy.
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Healthy Living/prevention, where the Client Council was closely involved in developing the UMC Utrecht-wide multidisciplinary Prevention Platform and the ‘Schakelpunt Gezond Leven’ (‘Healthy Living interface’).
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Digital health: the Client Council contributed to the UMC Utrecht Digital Masterclass on ‘User-friendly, safe, and reliable systems’.
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Research and Education, where the Client Council contributed to establishing the new course program for medical training. The Client Council also supported the UMC Utrecht symposium on ‘Patient participation in education’.
In addition, the Client Council drew up a new longterm plan for 2024 -2028 and participated in reflection and discussion on ongoing topics at UMC Utrecht, such as the Healthcare of Tomorrow program, the renovation program, and Quality & Safety.
Staff Assembly
The Staff Assembly consists of medical specialists from all fields who come together to ensure the quality of patient care. The Council of Members, the representative consulting body of the Staff Assembly, gives the Executive Board solicited and unsolicited advice on developments in medical fields and administrative affairs that pertain thereto. The implementation of Individually Functioning Medical Specialists (IFMS) within UMC Utrecht was also discussed by the Staff Assembly. In this regard, the Staff Assembly is working closely with the P&O department.
The Staff Assembly meets twice a month. The Chair of the Executive Board joins the meeting once a month. In addition, the daily management of the Staff Assembly meets monthly with the Chair of the Executive Board.
During meetings of the Council of Members, current topics are regularly discussed. In 2024, these included the transition to HIX 6.3, developments in the Healthcare of Tomorrow, and the program to create financial scope (Creëren Financiële Ruimte). In addition, the Staff Assembly regularly talked about the draft outline (Houtskoolschets), in which the principles for a new organizational structure for UMC Utrecht are described.
On December 13, 2024, the Executive Board asked the Staff Assembly for advice on the ‘Main design for a new organizational structure of University Medical Center Utrecht’. In response, the Staff Assembly formulated five strategic recommendations for a future-proof UMC Utrecht. The Executive Board took due notice of these recommendations. The recommendations will be taken into account in the detailed version, to which the Staff Assembly will actively contribute in 2025.
Over the past year, the Staff Assembly contributed actively to the furthering of sustainability initiatives at UMC Utrecht. By providing a platform for initiatives from medical specialists, sustainability expressly featured on the agenda.
With regard to sustainable employability, the Staff Assembly plays a coordinating role. In collaboration with LAD (Landelijke vereniging voor Artsen in Dienstverband, the national society for employed doctors), information was gathered among medical specialists in aid of the deployment of Chapter 15 of the collective agreement (CAO). This pertains to the position of the academic medical specialist. The Staff Assembly furthermore made a substantial contribution to the working session on December 6, where LAD and NFU jointly discussed the deployment for this chapter in the coming collective-agreement negotiations.
The Staff Assembly made a strong effort to strengthen the relationship between medical specialists, medical department heads, and the organization. In consultation with the Federation for Medical Specialists (FMS), the legal position of Staff Assembly members was explained. The Staff Assembly also contributed actively to the advisory process around the new main design of UMC Utrecht. In this, the Staff Assembly put a particular emphasis on cooperation and commitment.
Nursing Advisory Council
The Nursing Advisory Council (Verpleegkundige Adviesraad, VAR) is an advisory body appointed by the Executive Board to give advice – solicited or unsolicited – on matters that concern nursing care. The VAR includes nurses, nurse specialists, and team leaders from various divisions and departments, and is a mouthpiece for all nursing staff at UMC Utrecht. The VAR aims to expand and reinforce the impact of nursing within UMC Utrecht. Nursing leadership and representation are central here. The goal is to improve and guarantee the quality of care. The VAR also functions as a testing platform for innovations and implementations that affect the nursing profession. In addition, the VAR organizes about 12 nursing lunch forums a year where important nursing topics are presented to equip nurses. The VAR also has a weekly walk-in hour for any questions from, regarding, and for nurses.
The VAR daily management meets weekly, the broad representation with all VAR members meet monthly, and a reduced leadership team also meets monthly. Policy days are held twice a year for equipment and team-building. There are also two ambassador events each year where VAR ambassadors get the opportunity to inspire each other and to network. The daily management team is in contact monthly with the Chair of the Executive Board. One member of the Executive Board also joins the plenary VAR meeting each month.
In 2024, the VAR focused for instance on the positioning of nurses and the Future-proof Nursing program, the professionalization of both individual nurses and of the VAR management team itself, nursing leadership, the stimulation of nursing research, and professional pride. During Healthcare Day on May 12, 2024, 3 nurses of the year were once again chosen in the categories healthcare, education, and research. The VAR brings out an annual report on the UMC Utrecht intranet on activities and results.
