Objective To investigate the diabetic knowledge of primary hospital doctors and diabetes patients, and to explore the way to improve the capability of primary hospitals in preventing and treating diabetes. Methods Between January 2013 and June 2014, we set questionnaires to learn the profiles of diabetes knowledge of 328 internal and general medicine doctors including 43 chronic disease management workers from fifteen township hospitals and two community health centers, 152 doctors from village clinics, and 575 diabetes patients in Xindu District of Chengdu City. We made questionnaires for doctors and patients respectively to investigate their knowledge on diabetes and blood sugar control in the patients. Finally, we made plans to train doctors in primary hospitals according to the results of the investigation. Results For township hospitals, 328 questionnaires were given out with 319 retrieved, and the valid retrieval rate was 97.3%; 152 questionnaires were given out to village doctors and 149 were retrieved, with a valid retrieval rate of 98.0%; and we gave out 575 questionnaires to the diabetes patients and retrieved 539, with a valid retrieval rate of 93.7%. Primary hospitals were insufficient in their drug varieties. Among doctors in township hospitals, 7.8% had bachelor’s degree, 53.6% had received post-secondary education, and 38.6% had received secondary vocational education. Most of the village doctors had not received any professional medical education, among whom, 89.9% had a certificate of village doctors and 10.1% had a certificate of assistant doctors. The diabetes questionnaire score of primary hospital doctors was low, while the score of chronic disease management workers was relatively higher (P<0.05). For diabetes patients, medical investment was inadequate, treatment rate was low, common sense of diabetes was insufficient, and glycosylated hemoglobin control rate was only 13.5%. Conclusions Diabetes patients in primary hospitals have a poor disease control, which is probably associated with the insufficient publicity and education from doctors. It is necessary to train primary hospital doctors at all levels. In order to get the best therapeutic effect, we advocate that diabetes should be managed by doctors of chronic disease management, although they should receive systematic training for a long time.