42 Facts About Conny Helder

Conny Helder was born on 27 November 1958 and is a Dutch healthcare manager, who served as the Minister for Long-term Care and Sport and, for a few months, as Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in the fourth Rutte cabinet.

Conny Helder was born in The Hague and trained to be a surgical assistant.

Conny Helder rose to managerial positions in hospitals and served as chair of the board of directors of an Eindhoven network of primary healthcare centers starting in 2010.

Conny Helder led a regional cooperation to promote innovations in the elderly care sector.

Conny 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.

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

Conny Helder succeeded Ernst Kuipers as Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport in January 2024 following his resignation and served in that position until July 2024.

Conny Helder applied to study medicine but was rejected because of a quota, and she started studying chemistry at Leiden University in 1978 instead.

Conny Helder dropped out the next year to follow a training at Bronovo and Westeinde, two The Hague hospitals, to become a surgical assistant.

Conny Helder completed it three years later and started working.

Between 1986 and 1988, Conny Helder followed executive training in healthcare at The Hague University of Applied Sciences.

Conny Helder did another part-time study at Leiden University during this period in political science but did not finish it.

Conny Helder started filling managerial positions in hospitals, initially in The Hague and Amsterdam.

Conny Helder switched to the surgical specialties division of the same hospital four years later.

Conny Helder left UMCU in July 2010 to become chair of the board of directors of the Eindhoven Corporation of Primary Health Care Centers.

Conny Helder told upon her appointment that she wanted to expressly involve the latter group in important decisions.

Conny Helder started serving as director of tanteLouise, an elderly care provider active in Bergen op Zoom, Steenbergen, and Woensdrecht, in June 2017.

Conny Helder wanted to improve the healthcare chain and to sign more longer-term agreements with health insurance companies and municipalities.

Conny Helder's tenure saw the closing of some facilities, mostly older and smaller retirement homes, and the construction and renovation of others.

Conny Helder became chair of the board of directors of the West-Brabant Care Innovation Center, a cooperation between local healthcare providers to promote innovations, in 2019.

In January 2020, Conny Helder joined the board of ActiZ, a national trade association representing about 400 elderly care providers.

Together with other leaders of healthcare organizations in North Brabant, Conny Helder established the Regionaal Overleg Niet Acute Zorg the following month.

On 1 March 2021, Conny Helder, who used to be tanteLouise's sole director, was joined on the board of directors by two others.

Conny Helder drew attention to shortages in nursing homes of personal protective equipment 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.

Conny Helder voiced the opinion that elderly care was initially overlooked in comparison to intensive care.

Conny Helder said it would enable organizations to have discussions with teams with a low rate.

Conny Helder was among three people shortlisted in September 2020 for the title Topvrouw van het Jaar.

Conny Helder became Minister for Long-term Care and Sport in January 2022 as part of the new fourth Rutte cabinet on behalf of the center-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

Conny Helder set herself the goal of "keeping healthcare qualitatively good while keeping it affordable, accessible, and attractive".

Conny Helder called the required growth in healthcare personnel due to an aging population unsustainable; the Scientific Council for Government Policy 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.

Conny Helder said that healthcare therefore had to be organized differently.

Conny Helder presented a plan in July 2022 called Wonen, Ondersteuning en Zorg voor Ouderen 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.

Conny Helder planned to achieve this goal through health care prevention, additional housing for the elderly, and technological innovations such as videotelephony and robots.

Conny 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.

Conny Helder did not comply, citing the fact that the delayed investigation was still ongoing.

Conny Helder did release a number of documents related to De Jonge's involvement including a letter of his ahead of a debate.

Conny Helder 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.

Conny Helder decided to take legal action against Van Lienden's company in October 2023.

Conny Helder wore a scarf that read "Never mind", but she later mentioned this had been unintentional.

Conny Helder became acting Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport when Ernst Kuipers stepped down on 10 January 2024 to pursue an unspecified job.

Conny Helder's term came to an end on 2 July 2024, when the Schoof cabinet was installed.

Conny Helder has been living in 's-Hertogenbosch since the 1990s, and her partner is a general practitioner from that city.