Understand extremely shifty parliamentarian at hospital is to meet middlemen (10)

I believe the answer is:

sympathise

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'understand' is the definition.
(I know that understand can be written as sympathise)

'extremely shifty parliamentarian at hospital is to meet middlemen' is the wordplay.
'extremely' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the extremes of the word are used).
'parliamentarian' becomes 'MP' (Member of Parliament).
'hospital' becomes 'H' (abbreviation for hospital).
'is to meet middlemen' becomes 'ise' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'shifty' with its centre removed is 'sy'.
'sy'+'mp'+'at'+'h'+'ise'='SYMPATHISE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sympathise that I've seen before include "Express fellow feeling" , "commiserate" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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