Australia's system of registering and accrediting foreign medical graduates is so "dysfunctional" that the country is likely to face chronic doctor shortages for another decade, says a Canadian-born doctor.

Sue Douglas, who arrived in Australia in May 2006, said it took until this month to be able to work as a GP due to the quagmire she found herself in trying to have her qualifications recognised, despite 15 years' experience in Canada.

"My own journey reveals a system that is confusing, complicated, fragmented and inflexible," Dr Douglas wrote in a paper published recently by Monash University in Melbourne.

"Mine is one of many stories of overseas-trained doctors who have been unable to navigate the registration and accreditation system satisfactorily, and consequently are temporarily or permanently lost to clinical practice."

Australia is heavily dependent on foreign-trained doctors, who make up more than one-third of the workforce.

Dr Douglas, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University, wrote the paper, The Registration And Accreditation Of International Medical Graduates In Australia - A Broken System Or A Work In Progress? for this month's issue of the journal People And Place.

She details her own experience, which included the ACT medical board refusing to register her until her qualifications were accredited despite her being unable to gain accreditation until she was registered.

"There are many examples in the literature of [international medical graduates] feeling similarly marooned in an administrative no-man's land."

Dr Douglas told the Herald she had to obtain a letter from her old high school to prove she had learned English, despite being a native English speaker.

The Council of Australian Governments has agreed to establish a national registration and accreditation system, which would standardise the process and allow doctors to work more easily across borders.

Standards for practice and levels of supervision vary between jurisdictions and the specialist bodies responsible for accreditation lacked accountability, Dr Douglas said.

When assessing "area of need" positions it was possible to be declared fit in one state but not in another because the decision was left to medical boards rather than the use of traditional pathways - which include the colleges or the Australian Medical Council, she said.

Dr Douglas said there would not be a meaningful increase in medical manpower for five to 10 years due to the "dysfunction" of the system.