Ben Oude Nijhuis, who put the government’s care reforms back into the spotlight, was voted the Hero of 2014 by viewers of the Pauw tv chat show on Monday evening.

Oude Nijhuis and the father of junior health minister Martin van Rijn gave an interview to the AD in early November in which they criticised the care their wives are receiving at a home in The Hague. The following day Oude Nijhuis debated the subject with Van Rijn on the Pauw programme.

He was subsequently told by the patient council at his wife’s care home organisation not to talk to the press any more, the AD reported at the time. ‘They won‘t shut me up. We don’t live in Russia,’ Oude Nijhuis is quoted as saying in response.

He died just two weeks after the broadcast and the award was received by his son Ron, who said he hoped his father had done something towards an improvement in the quality of care homes and that his fight had not been in vain.

There were 16 candidates for Hero of 2014 and Oude Nijhuis received 31% of the vote.