Some clients of the Wa Central Market Clinic in the Wa Municipality have expressed concern about the encroachment of the premises of the clinic, which they said impede timely access to health care.

They complained that traders had invaded the entrance to the clinic, hampering easy access to the facility, particularly in times of emergencies.

Mr Seidu Issah, a concerned citizen, told the Ghana News Agency that as a health facility where emergency cases were expected at any point in time, there was the need for free flow of traffic in the area.

"A market is always a crowded place, but a facility that provides health services to people should not be crowded so that when people want to run to the facility to save their lives they will not have problems accessing it.

"But you get here to see how the place is always crowded. It's a worry to those of us who want to access the facility, there is always traffic at the access point and that is not good," he explained.

Madam Paula Napen said she had been attending the facility for maternal healthcare services but sometimes had to push her way through the people before she could access the facility.

"If they are to transfer emergency cases to other facilities, it will be serious, ambulance cannot entre there, the tricycle cannot enter, even motorbike," she added.

The GNA observed that patients could not have access to the facility with ease, especially on a Wa Market Day, due to the congestion at the entrance of the facility.

Mr Haruna Dawood Kansuri, the Nurse In-Charge of the Clinic, said the encroachment at the facility did not only impede timely access to healthcare services but affected staff access to the facility.

"People have erected structures around the clinic, the place is very congested, but sometimes a patient may want to come here for confidential services like adolescent services, Family Planning and HIV test, but they may fear the stigma of people seeing them entering and going out of the facility.

"Imagine if a woman is in labour and you are rushing her here, two people cannot even walk through the lane, what will you do?" he queried.

The In-Charge, therefore, appealed to the Wa Municipal Assembly and the relevant stakeholders to take steps to relocate traders selling around the clinic to help bring sanity to the area and improve healthcare access at the facility.

Mr Kansuri suggested that the Assembly could detail security personnel to the area to compel the traders to relocate if persuasions failed.