Dr. Natasha Josephine Charles

Dr. Natasha Josephine Charles is a general practitioner at St. George's General Hospital — the main public hospital of Grenada and the primary healthcare referral facility for the Tri-Island State of Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. With 12 years of experience in primary care, she provides frontline healthcare to Grenada's population of approximately 113,000 people.

Grenada, like much of the Eastern Caribbean, faces a rising burden of non-communicable diseases. Hypertension and type 2 diabetes are the most prevalent chronic conditions in the adult population, and Dr. Charles's practice is largely built around their management including lifestyle counseling, pharmacotherapy, and complication monitoring. Obesity, which drives much of the NCD burden in the Caribbean, is an important area of her preventive medicine work.

Alongside NCDs, seasonal dengue fever, respiratory infections, and vector-borne diseases are important in her primary care practice. As a female general practitioner, she is also a key provider of antenatal care and maternal health services for Grenadian women. She trained at the University of the West Indies and is a member of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians.

Dr. Charles completed her MBBS at the University of the West Indies and completed her internship at St. George's General Hospital. She holds a Diploma in Family Medicine and a Certificate in Reproductive Health. She is a member of the Caribbean College of Family Physicians and the Grenada Medical Association, and has participated in regional CME programs on NCD management in the Caribbean.

Dr. Charles's general practice covers chronic disease management (hypertension with antihypertensive optimization, type 2 diabetes with oral agents and insulin, dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome), antenatal care and maternal health (prenatal monitoring, nutritional counseling, delivery preparation, postnatal care), pediatric primary care (childhood immunisation, growth monitoring, acute pediatric illness), acute illness management (respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, dengue fever), and preventive care (cancer screening, cardiovascular risk assessment, Pap smear, STI counseling). She manages minor wounds and skin conditions and performs basic procedural primary care.

Grenada receives significant numbers of medical students and faculty from St. George's University School of Medicine — one of the largest medical schools in the Caribbean. Dr. Charles at St. George's General Hospital serves the local community including expatriate healthcare educators and students. Tourists and yachtspeople visiting Grenada's popular marinas may access urgent and non-urgent primary care at the hospital. All consultations are conducted in English.

Dr. Charles is a member of the Grenada Medical Association and the Caribbean College of Family Physicians, participating actively in their continuing education programmes and regional health advocacy initiatives. She contributes to Grenada's national NCD management programme and participates in community health education on hypertension and diabetes prevention — two of the most common and costly health conditions affecting Grenadian adults.

She has been involved in the Ministry of Health's antenatal care quality improvement programmes, contributing to efforts to strengthen maternal health service delivery at St. George's General Hospital. Her role in serving the medical student and faculty community of St. George's University School of Medicine — one of the Caribbean's largest medical schools — is also a recognised contribution to the island's healthcare ecosystem.