Friend attends hospital department for a brief period in Sicily (7)
I believe the answer is:
palermo
'in sicily' is the definition.
('Palermo' is part of 'sicily')
'friend attends hospital department for a brief period' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'friend' could be 'pal' (pal can mean a friend) and 'pal' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for palermo that I've seen before include "Italian capital" , "Chief port of Sicily" , "Main city of Sicily" , "ity of Italy" , "Chief city of Sicily" .)