Ill teen refused treatment by doctor who would only treat Arabic-speaking patients

A furious mother has claimed a doctor refused to see her ill son because he prioritised Arabic-speaking patients.

Ryan Poulter, 16, was rushed to a Melbourne medical centre after suffering appendicitis but was forced to wait more than an hour to see a GP.

The teen's mother, Nicole Poulter, told 7 News the treatment of her son was "just wrong".

"I was told by the receptionist that a particular doctor was only going to be treating Arabic-speaking patients.

"It's unethical. You can't randomly pick and choose which cases come to you. It's just wrong."

After one and a half hours Ryan was finally seen - and diagnosed with acute appendicitis.

A spokesman for the medical centre told Daily Mail Australia the situation was "unfortunate" but was simply the cause of a breakdown in communication.

"This situation is unfortunate because if it were clear he were sick we would ask our doctors to get onboard as soon as hospital. We always try and triage our patients and if someone needs urgent attention we get them in as quickly as possible," the spokesman said.

He also denied that patients are treated according to the language they speak.

Ryan has since had surgery and is recovering.