Report to blast NHS racism

The NHS is shot through with "institutional racism", according to an official inquiry to be published next week.

A leaked copy of a report by High Court judge Sir John Blofeld suggests that the treatment of ethnic minority patients throughout the health service is set to be branded a "disgrace."

The document is said to urge Health Secretary John Reid to acknowledge the existence of institutional racism in mental health services and to take action to eradicate it.

Its publication will see parallels drawn with the Macpherson report in 1999 into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, which accused the Metropolitan Police of "institutional racism".

Sir John's team was commissioned to investigate the death of Jamaican-born schizophrenia patient David "Rocky" Bennett in a secure unit in 1998. But his conclusions are likely to go well beyond the individual case.