English medic and old PM almost ready for fight (8)
I believe the answer is:
embattle
'ready for fight' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'english medic and old pm almost' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'medic' becomes 'mb' (Bachelor of Medicine**).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'old pm' becomes 'attlee' (Clement Attlee).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'attlee' with its last letter taken off is 'attle'.
'e'+'mb'+'attle'='EMBATTLE'
(Other definitions for embattle that I've seen before include "strengthen the defence" , "Fortify" , "Prepare for conflict" , "Arrange in readiness for conflict" , "Make ready to fight; belt mate (anagram)" .)