Patent obtained by a patient's first carer? (8)
I believe the answer is:
apparent
'patent' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'a patient's first carer?' is the wordplay.
'patient's first' becomes 'p' (pst letter of 'patient').
'carer?' becomes 'parent' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a'+'p'+'parent'='APPARENT'
'obtained by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apparent that I've seen before include "Seeming to be but not necessarily so" , "as such an heir" , "Obvious, clearly understood" , "That may be seen" , "Obvious; seeming real" .)