Claim spa town is lacking hospital (8)
I believe the answer is:
arrogate
'claim' is the definition.
(arrogating is a kind of claiming)
'spa town is lacking hospital' is the wordplay.
'spa town' becomes 'harrogate' (I've seen this before).
'is lacking' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'hospital' becomes 'h'.
'harrogate' with 'h' removed is 'ARROGATE'.
(Other definitions for arrogate that I've seen before include "Falsely claim" , "Ascribe or claim as one's own" , "Appropriate" , "Seize and take control without authority" , "Assume" .)