The clinic is seeing a record number of patients

Dr Angela Robinson, a consultant at one of London's busiest clinics, told BBC News Online's Ray Dunne how staff struggle to cope with record numbers of patients.

The Mortimer Market Centre, in Camden, north London, is one of the busiest sexual health clinics in the country.

Doctors here conduct in the region of 100,000 consultations each year and, like their colleagues in the rest of the NHS, are struggling to cope.

The clinic runs an appointment-only service, although patients in urgent need are seen quickly.

We have spaces for people who say the right things

"We have spaces for people who say the right things," she says.

Patients who present with symptoms or who have been in contact with someone with a sexually transmitted infection are fast-tracked. Others are given an appointment for a future date.

'Three-week waits'

"We try to identify those patients who really need to be seen. Patients who do not have any symptoms but are worried and are looking for a check-up, for instance, will have to wait. They get the lowest priority," says Dr Robinson.

"Waits for an appointment can be anything from one to three weeks."

Dr Robinson acknowledges that this level of service is far from ideal. However, a lack of money to pay for extra staff and pressure on space means there are few alternatives at the moment.

We do not have enough staff or enough space to see patients

"Obviously, one of the difficulties with sexually transmitted infections is that many patients do not have symptoms.

"This means that we are losing the opportunity to diagnose infections in a timely fashion and we are not preventing onward transmission.

"But the problem is we do not have enough staff or enough space to see patients."

The situation is compounded by the fact that many of those patients who do are given appointments do not then turn up for their check-up.

"Our patients are relatively young. Often we only get one bite of the cherry."

Record rise

Dr Robinson believes that the failure of the NHS to treat patients quickly is contributing to the rise in STIs.

"We know that even people who think they might have a sexually transmitted infection or who might have symptoms do actually change partners.

The difficulty at the moment is that sexual health is not seen as a priority

"This will increase the transmission of infections. I believe this is one of the major reasons why we are seeing the increases in infection," she says.

She agrees with the call from MPs for patients to be seen within two days.

"From a public health perspective if we don't see people within 48 hours, which is what we would like our target to be, we are going to get more and more people contracting infections."

Dr Robinson believes the situation will only improve if the government makes sexual health a priority and makes substantially more money available to fund clinics.

"The difficulty at the moment is that sexual health is not seen as a priority," she says.

"In our area, the primary care trust has passed on the money. However, in other parts of the country, money has not necessarily found its way to sexual health and HIV services.