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A dire shortage of retirement homes in Nelson Mandela Bay is forcing pensioners to wait up to seven years for an opening at one of the city's few affordable retirement villages.
The problem has caused prices of private and state-subsidised retirement homes to spiral - a trend exacerbated by the climbing cost of living as property rates, food and fuel prices increase.
But developers are tackling the problem, and also introducing a new trend of moving towards in-home care - abandoning separate frail care facilities which are costly for residents.
The shortage has spurred father and son team Pieter and Jaco Rademeyer to unveil plans for a modern and secure retirement village, after their previous developments in the city's western suburbs sold out fast.
According to Pieter, the new development will include a new trend of housing trained medical personnel 24/7, while also teaming up with an established emergency medical services company in place of increasingly redundant frail care facilities.
"Rather than building a frail care unit on site, which can push up the costs by as much as R8,000 per month for pensioners, we are teaming up with medical professionals who can not only arrive in minutes, but also better assist with any major medical problems residents might experience," said Pieter.
The "community-orientated" developments will have various amenities, such as libraries and communal halls for residents, a 24-hour medical assistant, and transport to and from clinics and shops in the city, Pieter said.
"We are moving towards encouraging residents who need medical assistance to stay in their homes and rather to be attended to there by a medical assistant, where they are happy and comfortable, rather than be separated from their loved ones in a frail care unit," he said.
The average private frail care unit in the city costs R10,500 per month. Pieter said their new developments would offer homes - sold on a life-rights scheme - from R500,000 for a one-bedroomed unit with a lounge, patio, kitchen and with security features.
An intercom will give residents 24-hour emergency access to the on-site medical assistant.
Jaco, owner of Jaco Rademeyer Estates, said his office was fielding calls from Bay residents who were worried for the well-being of their pensioner parents who were waiting for an opening at a retirement home.
"Frail care developments have become too expensive. These days it's far better for retirement home residents to rather have immediate access to trained emergency services personnel who can get them to a hospital within minutes," said Jaco.
The pair, under Pieter Rademeyer Developments, has identified a site for their next retirement village in Westering.
Pieter Rademeyer Developments has already been successful with the new retirement home development model by partnering with Dynamic Emergency Medical Services at its Kabega Park Oord retirement complex.
Daniel Hart, Dynamic's operations manager and advanced life support practitioner, said the company's response time was under 1min/km.
"We are trained to deal with medical problems which many GPs don't specialise in," said Hart.
"It's crucial that we are involved from the start of the medical emergency, because those first few minutes are the most crucial. They make the difference between life and death.
