Concentrated before care in hospital (9)
I believe the answer is:
intensive
'concentrated' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'in hospital' is the wordplay.
'hospital' becomes 'tensive' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in'+'tensive'='INTENSIVE'
'before care' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for intensive that I've seen before include "Demanding" , "Very vigorous or thorough; concentrating" , "Concentrated" .)