Honoured guest, Lieutenant Colonel Florence Gittens and Chief of Staff, Colonel Glynne Grannum as they unveiled the plaque to the refurbished medical facility at St. Ann’s Fort.
Medical facility renamed
The medical facility at St. Ann’s Fort has been officially renamed the Florence Gittens Medical Facility, after one of the first females to join the military, Lieutenant Colonel Florence Gittens.
The medical facility was unveiled yesterday evening during a renaming ceremony, which took place at St. Ann’s Fort.
Chief of Staff Colonel Glynne Grannum, who spoke at the event, believes that the renaming of the medical facility is not only fitting, but also necessary, given the “sterling service” of Lieutenant Colonel Florence Gittens to Barbados through and outside of the Barbados Defence Force.
“She has not only had a successful military career, her contribution spans over 40 years and includes the training of military and civilian healthcare professionals, who have applied their skills across the globe,” he said.
“Specifically to the military, she made a very outstanding and enduring contribution to the military medical support services, to the Force’s strategy for healthcare and to the wider national public healthcare and disaster management systems. She has been a pioneer in local and regional disaster response planning and execution and is still active today.”
Grannum believes that while the facility was built and refurbished by craftsmen, artisans and engineers, its underlying concept and enduring spirit and soul is owed to Colonel Gittens.
He noted that he was eternally grateful as she provided excellent first aid training, preventative healthcare practices, professional high quality healthcare and medical treatment in the Barbados Defence Force and indeed efficient mass casualty response with their operational partners in the national and regional medical and disaster response in the community.
He noted that these were just a few reasons why he believes the honour of having the medical facility renamed after Colonel Gittens was an honour she deserved.
Colonel Gittens expressed that she was extremely humbled to have this honour bestowed upon her. She credited the work of all the staff she worked with, as she would not have been able to achieve all that she achieved to date.
She revealed that it was her hope for the Medical Facility to develop and grow “from strength to strength.”