Crop cutter against visiting hospital department for period of recovery (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
sick leave
'period of recovery' is the definition.
'sick leave' can be an answer for 'period' (sick leave is a kind of period). I am unsure of the 'of recovery' bit.
'crop cutter against visiting hospital department' is the wordplay.
'crop cutter' becomes 'sickle' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'against' becomes 'v' (abbreviation for 'versus').
'visiting' is an insertion indicator.
'hospital department' becomes 'ae' (A and E, Accident and Emergency department).
'v' inserted into 'ae' is 'ave'.
'sickle'+'ave'='SICK-LEAVE'
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sick leave that I've seen before include "Time off work for illness" , "recovery period" , "Time off when 11 ac" , "Ill time off work" , "Time for workers to become better" .)