Hospital department personnel, half in need of case or grip (7)
I believe the answer is:
enthral
'grip' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'hospital department personnel half in need of case' is the wordplay.
'hospital department' becomes 'ENT' (abbreviation for Ear, Nose and Throat department).
'personnel' becomes 'HR' (Human Resources).
'half in need of case' becomes 'al' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ent'+'hr'+'al'='ENTHRAL'
'or' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for enthral that I've seen before include "absorb" , "hypnotise" , "Hold spellbound" , "Totally fascinate" , "yoke" .)