A lot of sadness about hospital department in Italian resort (8)
I believe the answer is:
sorrento
'italian resort' is the definition.
'a lot of sadness about hospital department in' is the wordplay.
'a lot of' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'lots of' mean this (the majority of the word)).
'sadness' becomes 'sorrow' (synonyms).
'about hospital department' becomes 'ent' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'sorrow' with its final letter removed is 'sorro'.
'sorro' enclosing 'ent' is 'SORRENTO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sorrento that I've seen before include "site south of Naples" , "Italian town on bay of Naples" , "City on the Gulf of Naples" , "Resort in Campania" , "Resort on the Bay of Naples" .)