Australia will welcome more than 3000 medical graduates in 2012 but a significant fraction of them could be forced to seek overseas work placement due to lack of domestic internship opportunity, reports said.

According to News Ltd, 180 of the expected 3326 new doctors in the current year could be left without hospital slots for their 12-month internship training, a requirement for Australian-trained doctors to find work in Aussie medical facilities.

The fresh graduates are foreign nationals but are more than willing to employ their training treating Australian patients, Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand (MDANZ) chief Justin Beilby said on Wednesday.

"Everyone knows we have a chronic shortage of doctors in Australia, and these locally trained international medical students want to stay in this country and work here," Prof Beilby told The Herald Sun.

But it is likely that they will be turned away because Australian state and territories seemed unwilling to fork out the money needed for the year-long internship of these international medical graduates, cost of which is about $120,000 per trainee, The Courier Mail said.

In Queensland alone, up to 84 foreign graduates could end up without internship slots as the state government has admitted that funding constraints forced officials to prioritise local medical graduates.

For 2013, costs for 650 medical intern slots will be shouldered by the state, a Queensland spokesman told The Courier Mail, but it is a different story for the foreign graduates.

"Queensland continues to work with the Federal Government and other States and Territories to find ways to continue to place international medical graduates, but notes that additional funding will be required to cater for the increasing numbers of such graduates in future years," the state spokesman added.

Citing government statistics, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) reminded that over the next decade the country will likely have a shortage of more than 2000 doctors and the situation will not be helped by the perceived funding squabbles between Canberra and state authorities.

The clear solution, according to AMA president Steve Hambleton, is for the federal and local governments to get their acts together in resolving the serious matter.

In a statement, Dr Hambleton urged state and territory authorities to "work cooperatively with the commonwealth to find a solution," lest the Australian health system will gradually see the exodus of these valuable talents.

In a report by the Australian Associated Press (AAP), Prof Beilby lamented that the whole problem was rooted on "the issue of leadership," which thankfully, he added, will be addressed by Health Minister Tanya Plibersek.

"The federal minister has given us a clear indication she's willing to stay at the table until this is resolved," Prof Beilby said.

Though a spokesman, Ms Plibersek issued assurances that her office would "take action that will see these medical graduates placed as soon as possible in internship positions."

She noted that it was of great concern for the federal government "that around 180 medical graduates have not been offered internships in state-run hospitals next year and will not be able to complete their training to be registered as doctors."

She vowed to take up the issue to states and territories, noting that "doctors who are educated in Australia tend to stay in Australia, boosting our medical workforce, particularly in rural and regional areas where the need for doctors is especially acute."

Ms Plibersek disclosed too that the Labor Government has been investing billions to ensure that Australia will continue to produce world-class medical doctors and as much as possible, they will end up treating Aussie patients.