In Taif alone there are more than 360 such patients registered with the local dialysis center, according to a report in Al-Madinah newspaper.
These patients face numerous problems, including poor standards of living, difficulties in getting employment even if they are qualified, an inability to meet the huge costs for treatment and medicine and difficulties in reaching the city from their places of residence in remote villages and regions.
These patients have urged the authorities to take adequate measures to address many of their grievances. They said they needed credit cards to meet their day-to-day affairs and were not seeking this support free of cost, but at a discounted rate.
Speaking to the newspaper, renal patient Hameed Al-Daajani identified the inability to find a suitable job as the most serious social problem faced by similar sufferers in the Kingdom. “We find it very difficult to get a job that takes our health into consideration and enables us to earn a decent living. Having a job would help increase our confidence so that we can play our role as active members in society. This also helps ease our pains and hardships caused by this chronic disease,” he said.
Al-Daajani noted that difficulties in finding suitable jobs either in the public or private sectors force them to lead a life while suffering from both physical and mental problems.
“There are many qualified hands among renal patients who fail to find suitable positions. This would have a negative impact on our mental health also,” he said.
Abdullah Al-Ghamdi said financial problems add fuel to the fire of worries caused by the disease. Renal patients need to spend huge amount of money for their dialysis as well as for purchasing medicine, he said.
Another woman patient who spoke on condition of anonymity urged the private sector to play an active role in easing the suffering of those affected by kidney diseases.
“The private firms could lend a helping hand in easing our miseries by making available credit facilities at discounted rates. We are asking for some concessions and not for anything free of cost,” she said.
Ali Al-Qarni, another renal patient, drew attention to the miseries of some patients who undergo dialysis for several years and are not in a position to be mobile. “We rely on a bus to take us to and from the hospital for routine dialysis,” he said.
Several renal patients, including women who undergo dialysis at the Taif Dialysis Center, wanted the authorities to pay attention to their major grievances and urged them to take urgent steps to meet their demands.
While highlighting their inability to meet the high costs of living, they were demanding ambulances to transport patients to and from the dialysis center, make available electric mobile wheelchairs and blood pressure testing devices at home, extend financial support to poor families, appoint a psychiatrist at the center, make available a bus to transport patients who have difficulties in movement, and provide jobs in accordance with their qualifications.
Meanwhile, Dr. Faisal Shaheen, head of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation and Kidney Patients, said the main problem facing the center is a lack of facilities to publicize the services rendered by the Prince Fahd bin Salman Charitable Society for the Care of Kidney Patients.
“We need coordinators in every region across the Kingdom to make renal patients aware of the programs and services offered by the society. The society had concluded deals with a number of government and private firms and agencies aimed at alleviating the suffering of kidney patients and extend to them all types of support,” he said, adding that the society had raised its annual allowance to renal patients from SR3,500 to SR10,000.
Dr. Shaheen also noted that there is a supervisory committee in charge of implementing the programs at the society.
