Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has lauded Carib Rehab Limited for the service it offers, saying the company has made a meaningful contribution to the lives of many Barbadians.
Ms. Mottley made the comments on Monday night at a reception to celebrate Carib Rehab’s 30th anniversary as a leading supplier of rehabilitation and home care products in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean.
As she shared her own experience in utilizing the services of Carib Rehab, she emphasized its importance to citizens with health challenges.
She stated: “I suffer from sleep apnea, and therefore the ability to be able, at short notice, to get access to a machine when yours is not working or to have access to hoses…without having to send overseas for them, is a critical facility that we would [always] want to have in Barbados.
“I have learnt that since 2008/09, we cannot take for granted the ability of businesses to hold inventory. We are seeing it at the higher level with trucks and buses. There are very few entities in today’s world that hold inventory because of the cost of holding inventory, particularly for complex machinery or for large machinery.”
Therefore, she commended the management for its commitment to keeping inventory so that customers’ needs could be met.
Ms. Mottley reiterated her call for the repurposing of plantation houses, highlighting Carib Rehab’s location at Friendship Plantation, as a fine example of such.
She said some persons had expressed concerns about the recent removal of the house of National Hero, The Rt. Excellent Samuel Jackman Prescod from its location.
The Prime Minister added that it was a difficult moment for her as well, but she had to take into account the safety of the children on that site, and the legal liability if something happened.
“The bald reality is that the reports and the recommendations from the engineers, with the children on that site, were reported to me to be such, that it would be difficult to have restored it….
“We have indicated to the entities that they have to rebuild it, respecting the heritage…. The truth is that we will not always be able to save everything we want to save, but we have determined, as a Government, that we will try. That is why the new planning development legislation has been drafted how it has, and is why we are working and will continue to work with all of the relevant entities to either restore or repurpose, where possible, those aspects of our heritage that we want to keep,” Ms. Mottley stressed.