Doctor starts to use more surgical instruments (5)
I believe the answer is:
drums
'instruments' is the definition.
(drum is a kind of instrument)
'doctor starts to use more surgical' is the wordplay.
'doctor' becomes 'dr' ('Dr' can be a synonym of 'doctor').
'starts to' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'use more surgical' is 'ums'.
'dr'+'ums'='DRUMS'
(Other definitions for drums that I've seen before include "Percussion instruments" , "Containers" .)