Ottawa Public Health will ask the city council for more funding in order to meet growing demand, especially for services at the sexual health center.

"It's definitely packed," Program Manager Andrew Hendriks said at the Clarence Street walk-in center, which saw 4,530 people from April through June. While that is the highest volume since 2005, Hendriks said he expects even more this quarter.

The city has had large increases in reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Cases of chlamydia, the most commonly reported STD, jumped 52 percent from 2005 to 2009, Hendriks said. Most clinic patients are between ages 15 and 29, though nurses report seeing more men in their 30s and 40s with syphilis symptoms.

Clinics in other cities are seeing similar trends, said Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa's associate medical officer of health. "We know the rate of [STDs] is increasing," she said, adding that there is no simple answer for the uptick.

The walk-in clinic's busiest are Mondays, Etches said, and sometimes there is a line at the door before the center opens. It is not unusual for nurses to stay late seeing patients, and the unit has developed a triage system to quickly handle the most serious cases. However, staff members have seen potential clients leave the clinic because it is too busy.

Ideally, the program should hire eight more nurses and open a new sexual health center, which could help thousands more people, Etches said.