Um, in my experience as a Brit both are used for different contexts (though they’re pretty interchangeable).
Being ‘in hospital’ implies a prologued stay.
“Where is Joe?”
“He’s in the hospital.”
this implies that he may be visiting someone, or is only going to be there briefly for a quick check up. (It begs the question - what is he doing there? Is he okay?)
“Where is Joe?”
“He’s in hospital.”
this implies that he is being treated there. (It begs the question - what’s wrong with him?)
But you can use ‘the’ to say someone is being treated too, if you want, nobody would find that odd. Removing ‘the’, in my head, definitely means you’re having some sort of treatment. Saying, “I’m going to hospital today” implies you’re having an operation, or whatever.
Nah. The question it really begs is: “Hospital?!? What is it?!?”
“It’s a big building with a lot of rooms. But that’s not important right now!”
I agree with others upthread; if my husband is home, and not feeling well, I might say “Maybe you’d better go see the doctor”, meaning ‘the doctor we normally see’. If he’s traveling and not feeling well, I might tell him “Gee, maybe you’d better see a doctor”, it means ‘whatever doctor might be available to treat you’.
But trying to dissect the English language is an exercise in futility, I’m afraid.
I don’t like either suggest or raise, they don’t feel right. I’m aware there’s an actual logical fallacy by that name, but it’s used so commonly (round 'ere?) as a way of saying that something simply implies a question, that I don’t think that really matters. I’m highly against prescriptivist English and very much for how language is actually used in actual conversation. I don’t think there was any cause for confusion with what I wrote.
