HEOPS is a group of Occupational Physicians and Practitioners providing occupational health services for higher education institutions (HEI’s) in the UK.
Our aim is to provide a forum for developing and exchanging best practice. We also have an email discussion forum/bulletin board. We intend to hold at least two scientific/educational meetings a year.
Universities have a wide range of occupations, varied occupational hazards (especially in research), and complex occupational health needs. Universities vary widely in size, subjects taught, and research areas. Therefore, their needs for occupational health provision vary. HEOPS offers guidance on the structure and staffing of occupational health provision within higher education.
In summary, the following recommendations are distilled from our guidance, which can be downloaded from this website:
All universities should have access to at least one specialist in occupational medicine and a specialist in occupational health nursing.
HEOPS recommends a staffing formula based on number of staff and students, with an adjustment for the lower occupational health needs of students.
Services should be managed by either a specialist occupational physician, or a specialist occupational health nurse.
Management scope should include management of staff, budget, professional responsibility for occupational health policy, accountability for the quality services, preparing an annual report of service activity and spending so that performance can be judged against agreed goals when setting annual budgets.
HEOPS recommends that the head of the service has a clearly-agreed “dotted line” reporting arrangement to the university Vice Chancellor (or equivalent) or Registrar (or equivalent) for any matter affecting the health of university staff or students.
Whatever the line management structure, and regardless of whether the head of the service is employed in-house or is an external contractor, HEOPS recommends that the head of the service (or his or her representative) attends relevant university committees on, for example, health and safety, disability, welfare, student health, human resources, risk management.
