Patient having had to give up work (8)
I believe the answer is:
resigned
'patient' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'had to give up work' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'had' could be 'd' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'd' is located in the answer.
'give up' could be 'resign' (synonyms) and 'resign' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'having' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for resigned that I've seen before include "Gave up office" , "Like characters in 5D [WAITING FOR GODOT]" , "Stopped working" , "Left a job voluntarily" , "without complaining" .)