Examine Charlie in hospital (4)
I believe the answer is:
scan
'examine' is the definition.
(scanning is a kind of examining)
'charlie in hospital' is the wordplay.
'charlie' becomes 'c' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'hospital' becomes 'san' (I've seen this in other clues).
'c' inserted within 'san' is 'SCAN'.
(Other definitions for scan that I've seen before include "Scrutinise; glance over" , "Take a quick look" , "Medical procedure" , "make a detailed copy of" , "short survey" .)