Conny Helder (born 27 November 1958) is a Dutch healthcare manager, who has been serving as Minister for Long-term Care and Sport as part of the

fourth Rutte cabinet The Fourth Rutte cabinet is the current Government of the Netherlands. It was inaugurated on 10 January 2022. The cabinet is a continuation of the previous third Rutte cabinet and is formed by the conservative-liberal People's Party for Free ...

since 2022. She was born in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

and trained to be a surgical assistant. She rose to managerial positions in hospitals and served as chair of the board of directors of an

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil ...

area, seven years later and was involved in a number of projects to renovate existing and construct new

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...

s. She also led a regional cooperation to promote innovations in the elderly care sector. tanteLouise was heavily affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, which reached the Netherlands in February 2020. Helder, who had become a board member of the trade association ActiZ the month before, made frequent media appearances to comment on the pandemic and to advocate the association's positions. When the fourth Rutte cabinet was formed, Helder was asked to join as Minister for Long-term Care and Sport on behalf of the centre-right

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a conservative-liberal Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingstoke (Palgrave) p.49 political party i ...

(VVD). She was sworn in on 10 January 2022 and has proposed a plan to provide more elderly care at home rather than in nursing homes in reaction to the aging population of the Netherlands.

Early life and healthcare career

Helder was born on 27 November 1958 in

. She attended the secondary school Jan Campert Mavo in that city in the years 1971–74 and subsequently did havo and vwo at Thorbecke Lyceum. Helder applied to study medicine but was rejected because of a quota, and she started studying chemistry at Leiden University in 1978 instead. She dropped out the next year to follow a training at Bronovo and Westeinde, two The Hague hospitals, to become a surgical assistant. She completed it three years later and started working. Between 1986 and 1988, Helder also followed executive training in healthcare at

The Hague University of Applied Sciences The Hague University of Applied Sciences ( nl, De Haagse Hogeschool), abbreviated THUAS, is a university of applied sciences with its campuses located in and around The Hague in the Randstad metropolitan region in the west of the Netherlands. Th ...

. She did another part-time study at Leiden University during this period in political science but did not finish it. Helder started filling managerial positions in hospitals, initially in The Hague and Amsterdam. In 2000, she became manager at the

University Medical Center Utrecht The University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU; Dutch: ''Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht'') is the main hospital of the city of Utrecht, Netherlands. It is affiliated with the Utrecht University. Since the foundation of the university in 1636 an ...

's (UMCU) surgical division. She switched to the surgical specialties division of the same hospital four years later. Helder left UMCU in July 2010 to become chair of the board of directors of the Eindhoven Corporation of Primary Health Care Centers (SGE). The organization operated ten centers in the city of

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Strijp-S for expats living in Eindhoven after an evaluation had shown that many expats did not trust the Dutch healthcare system due to the relatively important role of general practitioners.

tanteLouise and COVID-19 pandemic

Bergen op Zoom - Sint-Catharinaplein bejaardentehuis

Helder started serving as director of tanteLouise, an elderly care provider active in

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the local dialect) is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands. Etymology The city was built on a place where two types of soil meet: sandy soil and marine clay. The sandy soil ...

Steenbergen Steenbergen () is a municipality and a town in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands. The municipality had a population of in and covers an area of of which is water. The municipality is mainly agricultural including ...

, and

Woensdrecht Woensdrecht () is a municipality (named after the village) in the southern Netherlands. Woensdrecht is the home of the Woensdrecht Air Base, which is located to the north-east of the village of Woensdrecht and to the north-west of Huijbergen. ...

, in June 2017. Back then, the organization employed 1,800 people and took care of approximately 4,000 elderly people, including 1,100 in its approximately fifteen

s. She wanted to improve the healthcare chain and to sign more longer-term agreements with health insurance companies and municipalities. The following year, one of its nursing homes in

started experimenting with augmented reality glasses for medical diagnoses by remote specialists. Her tenure also saw the closing of some facilities, mostly older and smaller

retirement home A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Typically, each person or couple in ...

s, and the construction and renovation of others. To enable these changes, a temporary facility with close to 100 units was opened in 2019 on the grounds of mental institution Vrederust in Halsteren. Plans to tear down most of Huize St. Catharina in Bergen op Zoom in order to build a new facility faced some resistance due to the perceived historical value of the complex from 1929. However, the municipality decided against listing it as a heritage site, paving the way for its demolition. Helder became chair of the board of directors of the West-Brabant Care Innovation Center (CIC), a cooperation between local healthcare providers to promote innovations, in 2019. A few months before, a new nursing home of tanteLouise for dementia patients called Hof van Nassau had opened in Steenbergen, featuring several technological innovations such as GPS trackers to allow inhabitants to roam around more freely. It drew attention from the

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CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly tr ...

, and a delegation from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Projec ...

, and Helder joined Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport

Hugo de Jonge Hugo Mattheüs de Jonge (; born 26 September 1977) is a Dutch politician serving as Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning since 2022 in the Fourth Rutte cabinet. A member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), he was elected to its leader ...

on a working visit to China. In January 2020, Helder joined the board of ActiZ, a national trade association representing about 400 elderly care providers. The first case of the coronavirus in the Netherlands was detected on 27 February, marking the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Together with other leaders of healthcare organizations in

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to th ...

, Helder established the Regionaal Overleg Niet Acute Zorg (RONAZ; Regional consultation of non-acute care) the following month. The body advised nursing homes to close their doors to visitors in order to mitigate the spread of the virus to this vulnerable group; Helder complied and did not allow any visitors starting on 16 March. The

third Rutte cabinet The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022 (since 15 January 2021 demissionary). It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democra ...

made the measure mandatory three days later. The complete ban remained in place until 19 May, while Helder had called it no longer sustainable and inhumane a month earlier. Despite precautions, several nursing homes of tanteLouise experienced outbreaks of the coronavirus including Het Nieuwe ABG, where the army assisted and where 29 out of 168 inhabitants died in late 2020. Vaccinations started in the Netherlands in early January 2021, initially only at dedicated centers. A few weeks later – after the creation of smaller vaccine batches had been made possible – vaccinations commenced at nursing homes and disability care centers, and tanteLouise was chosen to be among twelve organizations that received the vaccines first as part of a pilot. On 1 March 2021, Helder, who used to be tanteLouise's sole director, was joined on the

board of director A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

s by two others. The

supervisory board In corporate governance, a governance board also known as council of delegates are chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company and to hire and fire the board of directors. In civil ...

stated that the move was necessitated by increasingly complex elderly care, innovations, and major real estate projects. Being a spokesperson for ActiZ and RONAZ, Helder often commented on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing homes in the media, leading ''

Brabants Dagblad ''Brabants Dagblad'' is a daily Dutch newspaper. It is distributed in the center and northeast of North Brabant, in 's-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg and their surrounding regions. The paper's office is in 's-Hertogenbosch. History 18th century T ...

'' to describe her as the face of elderly care during the pandemic. She drew attention to shortages in nursing homes of

personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, ...

at the start of the first wave of infections and of personnel in later stages, when many employees were absent after having contracted the virus. Helder also voiced the opinion that elderly care was initially overlooked in comparison to

intensive care Intensive care medicine, also called critical care medicine, is a medical specialty that deals with seriously or critically ill patients who have, are at risk of, or are recovering from conditions that may be life-threatening. It includes pro ...

. After vaccines had become widely available, she defended ActiZ's position that elderly care facilities should have insight into the vaccination status of their employees. She said it would enable organizations to have discussions with teams with a low rate. Helder was among three people shortlisted in September 2020 for the title Topvrouw van het Jaar (Female leader of the year).

Minister for Long-term Care and Sport

Helder became Minister for Long-term Care and Sport in January 2022 as part of the new

on behalf of the center-right

(VVD). That party had won a

plurality Plurality may refer to: Voting * Plurality (voting), or relative majority, when a given candidate receives more votes than any other but still fewer than half of the total ** Plurality voting, system in which each voter votes for one candidate and ...

in the general election held in March 2021 and had formed a coalition with the centrist-progressive

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; abbreviated D66, ) is a social liberal political party in the Netherlands, which positions itself in the centre of the political spectrum. It is a member of the Liberal International (LI) and the Alliance of Liberals and Demo ...

(D66) party and the centrist-conservative

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutiona ...

(CDA) and

Christian Union Christian Union may refer to: * Christian Union (Lithuania), a Lithuanian Christian democratic political party (''Krikščionių sąjunga'' in Lithuanian) * Christian Union (Netherlands), a Dutch Christian democratic political party (''ChristenUn ...

(CU) parties. The cabinet was sworn in on 10 January by King

Willem-Alexander Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess Beatr ...

Noordeinde Palace Noordeinde Palace ( nl, Paleis Noordeinde, ) is one of the three official palaces of the Dutch royal family. Located in The Hague in the province of South Holland, it has been used as the official workplace of King Willem-Alexander since 2013. ...

. Helder is a

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet ...

– meaning that she does not lead a ministry of her own – and her responsibilities are long-term care (elderly and disabled care), mental healthcare, district nursing care, personal health budget, quality policy, labor market policy, sport, coordination of accountability of the health ministry's COVID-19 policy, lawful care and good management, decreasing bureaucracy, and organizability/regionalization. She set herself the goal of "keeping healthcare qualitatively good while also keeping it affordable, accessible, and attractive". Helder called the required growth in healthcare personnel due to an aging population unsustainable; the

Scientific Council for Government Policy The Scientific Council for Government Policy (Dutch: Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid, WRR) is an independent think tank of the Government of the Netherlands based in The Hague, whose members include prominent social scientists, ec ...

(WRR) had concluded that a quarter of the labor force would have to work in the healthcare and welfare sectors in 2040, up from one-sixth in 2021. Helder said that healthcare therefore had to be organized differently. She presented a plan in July 2022 called Wonen, Ondersteuning en Zorg voor Ouderen (WOZO; Living, support, and care for the elderly) to reform elderly care in the Netherlands by having the elderly live at home for a longer time as opposed to moving to a nursing home. Helder planned to achieve this goal through health care prevention, additional housing for the elderly, and technological innovations such as

videotelephony Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Enc ...

and robots. The cabinet set aside €770 million for this purpose for the next five years. Helder accordingly abandoned the government's plans to add 50,000 nursing home spots by 2031 in favor of raising the capacity of total nursing care by the same number. She also extended the program (Ont)Regel de Zorg (Disorganize healthcare) to decrease unnecessary bureaucratic tasks despite mixed results in the past, and she launched a new program to spend €500 million per year to retain healthcare workers by increasing job satisfaction through innovation, education, development, and increased participation in decisions. The latter program was criticized by the

Federation of Dutch Trade Unions The Federation of Dutch Trade Unions ( nl, Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, FNV) is a national trade union centre in the Netherlands. In addition to member unions, workers in many sectors can join the FNV directly. History The FNV was founded ...

(FNV) for not including plans for higher wages. With her appointment as minister, Helder took over an investigation into a €100 million sale of imported face masks to the

Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport ( nl, Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport; VWS) is the Dutch Ministry responsible for public health, health care, quality of life, social work and sport. The Ministry was created in 1951 a ...

at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic by TV pundit and activist Sywert van Lienden and two accomplices. They claimed the deal was not-for-profit at a time when there was a shortage of personal protective equipment, but it was later discovered that it had earned them €20 million. When newspaper ''

de Volkskrant ''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized ...

'' reported in March 2022 that former health minister

had insisted that officials reach out to Van Lienden despite having earlier denied any involvement, a majority of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

asked Helder for a statement of facts. She did not comply, citing the fact that the delayed investigation was still ongoing. Helder did release a number of documents related to De Jonge's involvement including a letter of his ahead of a debate. She admitted that De Jonge had asked for the release, and she apologized following criticism from opposition parties that she only informed the House at his request after initially refusing to do so. During the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wo ...

, the cabinet decided to send Helder to attend a match between the Netherlands and host country Qatar. The House of Representatives had earlier carried a

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...

not to send a government delegation due to the country's human rights record. Following calls to wear an armband of the anti-discrimination campaign OneLove, Helder was criticized for showing up with a much smaller pin instead.

Personal life

Helder has been living in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

since the 1990s, and her partner is a general practitioner from that city. They have a son and a daughter, who were born around 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helder, Conny 1958 births Living people Dutch chief executives in the healthcare industry People in health professions from The Hague Politicians from The Hague People from 's-Hertogenbosch 21st-century Dutch politicians 21st-century Dutch women politicians People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians Ministers of Sport of the Netherlands Women government ministers of the Netherlands The Hague University of Applied Sciences alumni Leiden University alumni