AN "exceptional" Belfast junior doctor based in the Republic has learned an A&E job he successfully applied for in Northern Ireland is now only available in England, Scotland and Wales.
Dr Des Shearer (31) attended an interview in Belfast in January for a three-year specialist training post advertised on an NHS recruitment site and was offered the job.
The internal advertisement notes the post applies to hospitals in the "United Kingdom (England Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland)".
The young medic, whose father was a high-profile GP throughout the Troubles, said he desperately wants to return home to work in his native city and spend time with his family.
His 89-year-old father, Dr Raymund Shearer, who had one of the busiest practices on the Springfield Road, suffered a stroke last year.
However, he is "furious" to learn the the specialist post was not being offered in Northern Ireland hospitals.
"The nationwide interviews were held in Belfast and they offered it to me almost immediately and even told me I was exceptional. It was a total shock when they contacted me last month to say I could work anywhere else but the north - they offered me a job in Ipswich," he said.
"I see articles weekly about the brain drain in the north - graduates not returning because there is no government.
"I'm a graduate, actively wanting to return and work in Belfast, and yet I'm being blocked from doing so at time when they are crying out for doctors.
"Presumably they'll happily pay a locum inflated rates to cover that gap."
The junior medic, who has been working in a Limerick hospital after completing his medical degree in the south, said he is contacted on "an almost daily basis" by locum agencies on both sides of the border offering him up to £90 per hour to work in understaffed A&E departments.
Dr Shearer said he had contacted the head of the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency (NIMDTA) to highlight his frustration and to ask them to intervene.
The agency is responsible for "funding, managing and supporting postgraduate medical and dental education" across the north.
"I've had no response so I've decided to take up the offer of a similar training post in the south, where I will be working in hospitals across Dublin, Cork and Limerick over the next three years," he said.
"My parents are getting older and I desperately want to return home to work. With the uncertainly of Brexit I also don't know how it's going to impact in term of travelling back and forth with Green Cards and passport control."
The Irish News contacted NIMDTA who referred the matter to the Department of Health.
A Department spokeswoman said it does not comment on individual cases but confirmed that NIMDTA "does not offer all the medical specialty training programmes available across the rest of the UK".
She added they will ensure "that this is made clear" on the NHS website of the National Recruitment Office "when it is advertising training opportunities".
