Blackpool report: why do England’s deprived areas have the most troubled hospitals?

Clinicians in deprived areas are overwhelmed by generational ill health and poverty

• Leaked report shows culture of bullying at NHS hospital

The findings of the report into Blackpool Victoria hospital are as shocking as they are damning: a culture of bullying, racial discrimination and harassment that has contributed to a staff exodus with a direct impact on patients. The treatment of chronic disease, including Parkinson’s, were just some of the areas blighted by what appears to be a toxic culture.

But the Royal College of Physicians report, leaked to the Guardian, exposes much broader challenges for the NHS – and particularly for hospitals in the most deprived corners of Britain.