Derides the French supporting free hospital ward (9)
I believe the answer is:
ridicules
'derides' is the definition.
(to deride is to ridicule or mock)
'the french supporting free hospital ward' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'les' (plural form of 'the' in French).
'supporting' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go below others).
'free' becomes 'rid' (to be free of something is to be rid of it).
'hospital ward' becomes 'icu' (intensive care unit).
'rid'+'icu'='ridicu'
'les' put after 'ridicu' is 'RIDICULES'.
(Another definition for ridicules that I've seen is " Laughs at".)