THE peak body which promotes the recruitment of rural GPs says many remote areas would go without if the federal government changed the rules affecting overseas-trained doctors.

The Australian Medical Association this week called for an end to the "10 year moratorium" rule, which requires foreign-trained doctors to first take up a hard-to-fill posting when they start work in Australia.

Dr Kim Webber, chief executive of Rural Health Workforce Australia, said the rule was vital to staffing the nation's regional and remote areas and it could not be dropped.

"Our workforce in the country would be decimated if you got rid of it and the AMA needs to be careful that it doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater on this issue," Dr Webber said.

"If that policy was unilaterally dropped, I don't know how places like the Kimberley and Brewarrina would ever be staffed.

"These communities understand this and greatly appreciate the work these doctors do there."

Dr Webber said rural Australia was now reliant on overseas-trained doctors and this would not change until there were sufficient numbers of new medical graduates trained in Australia.

It would take "several years" before the recent expansion of medical schools and undergraduate places would fill this gap, she said.

New rural relocation incentives for doctors, which take effect from July 1, should also help to attract GPs to regional areas, she said.

Rural Health Workforce Australia is the peak body for the not-for-profit Rural Workforce Agencies, which recruit and support rural and remote GPs in each state and the Northern Territory.

The AMA this week said the rule was "discriminatory", and it ensured newly arrived and recently graduated doctors were sent to challenging postings where they had limited resources and professional support.