Fuss by patient initially needing support in ward (7)
I believe the answer is:
adoptee
'ward' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'fuss by patient initially needing support' is the wordplay.
'fuss by' becomes 'ado' (synonyms. I am not sure about the 'by' bit.).
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'needing' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'support' becomes 'tee' (tee is a kind of support).
The first letter of 'patient' is 'p'.
'ado'+'p'+'tee'='ADOPTEE'
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for adoptee that I've seen before include "Child taken on by another family" , "One taken on by new parents" , "one's taken into the family" , "one who's left home" .)