Called the doctor out for somebody (6)
I believe the answer is:
phoned
'called' is the definition.
('phone' can be a synonym of 'call')
'doctor out for somebody' is the wordplay.
'doctor' becomes 'phd'.
'out' means to remove the last letter.
'for somebody' becomes 'oned' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'phd' with its last letter taken away is 'ph'.
'ph'+'oned'='PHONED'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for phoned that I've seen before include "Called" , "Rang" .)