ALMOST a third of GP appointments in Scotland are for mental health problems, stark new figures show.

But doctors say they feel under pressure not to refer people to "already overstretched" NHS services and warned that access to support is "extremely poor".

Meanwhile, charities that offer free counselling, including the Tom Allen Centre in Glasgow, are struggling to accommodate the volume of patients referred by GPs. The church-run sevice, which receives no NHS funding, has a waiting list of three months .

Evidence suggest many patients end up paying for talking therapies because the waiting lists in the NHS are too long.

Almost 85% of doctors believe their are gaps in service provision for patients with mental health problems and more than 10% said they had never had any specialised training. Almost a quarter of the 470 plus GPs who took part in the study were from Glasgow.

One GP said: "Access to psychological therapies is extremely poor with long and unacceptable wait times. GPs feel under pressure not to refer people to already stretched services."

Doctors said they would also like to see a greater emphasis on support strategies rather than presciptions. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Scotland has called for GP training in mental health to be extended to five years.

Each year, one in four people in Scotland will experience a mental health problem.

The survey of more than 474 GPs across Scotland was commissed by Glasgow-based charity SAMH and the findings will be launched today at a conference of the RCGP in Edinburgh..

Billy Watson, SAMH chief executive, said: "Further investment in local GP services for people with mental health problems is seriously needed to ensure there are a greater number of choices available to support their mental health." Dr Miles Mack chairman elect of the RCGP said: "It is vital that general practice is resourced adequately to ensure patients get the services they need."