Julie Dawn Bailey
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
is a British café owner who was a central figure in the
Stafford Hospital scandal
The Stafford Hospital scandal concerns poor care and high mortality rates amongst patients at the Stafford Hospital, Stafford, England, during the first decade of the 21st century. The hospital was run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Tr ...
.
Biography
Born in
Stafford, England, Bailey moved to Wales in 1983 before moving back home to care for her mother, Bella Bailey.

Bailey helped to form an organisation, ''Cure the NHS'', which successfully campaigned for a public inquiry into the failings at the hospital.
She ran a dog grooming parlour and a small cafe, ''Breaks'', on Lichfield Road in the centre of town, which became the headquarters of the campaign. She and her supporters plastered the walls with photographs of dozens of elderly men and women – husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters – who they claimed had died unnecessarily at the hospital because of lack of care.
She was nationally praised for her determination to shine a light on the failings of
the Trust. In Stafford, some people have blamed her for a planned downgrade of the town's hospital. She says she suffered abuse in the streets. However police dropped the investigation into the alleged harassment claim as they could not find sufficient evidence.
Recognition
Bailey was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(CBE) in the
2014 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...
. She received abuse during and subsequent to her campaign, particularly through the Support Stafford Hospital
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
page.
On 9 April 2014, Bailey was named as the second most powerful woman in Britain by ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' newspaper and in the BBC ''
Woman's Hour
''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946.
History
The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...
'' power list 2014.
On 30 January 2019,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
announced that they had commissioned a drama of the Stafford Hospital scandal from the perspective of Bailey.
Jeremy Hunt
Sir Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2022 to 2024 and Foreign Secretary from 2018 to 2019, having previously served as Secretary of State for Health a ...
credits her for bringing to attention the cultural defects which meant that health provision became cruel and heartless.
References
External links
Cure the NHS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Julie
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
People from Stafford
Living people
Medical scandals in the United Kingdom
English health activists
British whistleblowers
Year of birth missing (living people)