JEDDAH: A severe shortage of places to live and doctors threaten the lives of one million old Saudis, said Dr. Talal Bakri, chairman of Family and Youth Committee at the Shoura Council. He held the Ministry of Social Affairs responsible for the acute shortage of homes for the elderly and urged it to act quickly in this regard, especially because the ministry has built only two shelters for elderly people, in Makkah and Dammam. Two men in Jeddah said old citizens suffer a lot. Ghazi Hatem Al-Juaid, 74, surrounded by his friends of his age in central part of the city, said with great sadness that people of his age are too often ignored and do not receive anything close to enough money and care. “Most of us have become physically weak to do any job. At this age, we need care, especially because we have spent most of our lives in the service of our beloved country.” He said that after long years of work, he was given a monthly pension of SR1,725, which was surprising and disappointing. “I mistakenly thought that the pensioners would be given good care, especially in terms of health care,” he said. “Instead, SR900 was deducted from my social security, which only left SR500, under the pretext that I get a pension. They don't give any consideration to the high cost of living and what can I do with this amount. They have never asked themselves how a person of my age can meet the needs of his family. This makes me believe that retirement is nothing but a death certificate.” Kamel Khadir, 63, said he likes to work and has done so for more than 30 years, but he was forced to retire three years ago. Since then, he has driven his private car as a taxi to generate more income to fulfill his family obligations because his pension is not sufficient. He said he goes to government primary health centers, which have months-long waiting lists, because he can't afford the private hospitals' high costs. The Ministry of Health has started implementing the second stage of its strategy to care for old people by deploying 150 physicians in the governorates, aiming to train them at primary health centers in providing integrated medical services and care for older people. The strategy is based on providing preventative and therapeutic services to this group of citizens, said Dr. Issam Al-Ghamdi, director of the General Administration for Primary Health Care at the Ministry of Health.
