Patients' health is being put at risk by overseas-trained doctors who are failing basic general practitioner exams but are still allowed to practice, a Darwin doctor has claimed.

Key points: Darwin specialist says she is inundated by referrals by overseas-trained GPs

Darwin specialist says she is inundated by referrals by overseas-trained GPs Medical Board admits difficulties in supplying doctors to some areas

Medical Board admits difficulties in supplying doctors to some areas Under-trained GPs regularly misdiagnose patients, doctor claims

The Australian Medical Board has said "in an ideal world" Australia would be "served by fully trained doctors, but that was not the case".

It said patients could check the qualifications of their general practitioner (GP) on a website.

Darwin GP Dr Samuel Heard said under-trained GPs have inflated specialist waiting lists in the Top End and led to regular misdiagnosis.

Dr Heard, who trains GPs, gave the "tragic example" of a woman who was 24 weeks pregnant and was sent to him by another surgery after being told her pregnancy was not viable following a blood test.

"If you were trained you'd know that that blood level drops off in pregnancy and it's normal," Dr Heard said.

"This baby was completely healthy and normal and here was this woman was in massive distress.

"I actually tore up the test result in front of her and did a scan to show that everything was alright."

Unnecessary tests, referrals being ordered: doctor

Dr Samuel Heard has concerns over the competence of some overseas trained doctors. ( ABC News: James Dunlevie )

Overseas-trained doctors have to pass a medical exam in order to practice in Australia, but then have two years to pass a clinical exam.

This is the same for Australian-trained doctors, but those doctors are heavily supervised and receive strict guidance from specialist GPs, while overseas doctors do not, according to Dr Heard.

He said this was not only problematic for patients, but also for hospitals and specialists who are being pushed to the brink as inexperienced GPs order unnecessary tests and referrals.

"Generally, in the past, if you have seen a GP, they would be at a standard of care which has been tested by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and have a fellowship. That is what the rules were a while ago," Dr Heard said.

"We then went into a period when there weren't enough doctors, and we got a lot of doctors from various parts of the world to work here, some with qualifications recognised by our college here in Australia, others without those qualifications."

Dr Heard said some specialist waiting lists have ballooned to hundreds of people because of unnecessary referrals.

"For one specialty I hear there is now a waiting list of 1,000 people ... that's up from a very small number a while ago," he said.

Hospital has 'no faith' in GPs

Dr Jenny Mitchell, Darwin Private Hospital specialist, told ABC Darwin she had been inundated with referrals from overseas-trained GPs.

"I'm frequently being requested to discuss contraception with patients. That is basic GP practice. That's not my job as a specialist," Dr Mitchell said.

"In the last four or five years that's snowballed and I think that's coincided with an increase in the number of overseas trained doctors," she added.

"The quality of some of the GPs is really pulling down the rest of the really good GPs."

Medical Board says issue 'worth discussing'

Dr Joanna Flynn, chair of the Australian Medical Board, said people could rest assured they would receive appropriate care in Darwin.

"People should have confidence when they go and see doctors because there [is] a good regulatory system in place," she said.

But she added "a lot of the points Dr Heard raised are worth us discussing".

"In an ideal world, all of Australia would be served by fully trained doctors but that's not the case," she said.

"It hasn't been the case, historically, because there have been difficulties supplying doctors in some areas. And so alternative pathways have been put in place in order to provide doctors."

Dr Flynn said patients could access the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency website to check the qualification of the GP they were seeing.

Dr Heard called for more transparency for patients around the level of qualification of overseas doctors practicing as GPs.

"The hospital is starting to say general practice in Darwin is rubbish. They have no faith in us any more."