PCT must provide more funds for GPs

As a GP with a special interest in diabetes and who is studying for an MSc in the disease, I read your article "Eat all that and you'll be sick" with interest.

However it did not say anything that I did not know already. GPs could do a lot more to pick up the large number of undiagnosed diabetics. We could do a lot more in the diagnosis and management of other chronic diseases and also to effectively diagnose and treat depression and a whole host of other illnesses.

I sometimes wonder what you think we actually do. I would love to run a diabetes screening clinic, as we have a large number of Asian patients in our practice, but there is no funding for this from the primary care trust. We consult for up to 3 hours in the morning and a further 3 hours in the afternoon and the space in between is crammed with house calls, phone calls, prescriptions and mail. I arrive at the surgery at 7am and leave at 6.30pm and no, I do not go home for lunch or play golf.

I am sick and tired of listening to eminent specialists stating that GPs should do more in their particular field when we are already working flat out to see 40-50 patients a day. It is PCTs that need to put funding into this important area.

Dr Stewart McMenemin, Glasgow