Medical Training Application Service (MTAS), the NHS's botched recruitment system, has created opportunities for agencies who recruit junior doctors to work abroad, says one recruiter who works in the sector.

Geneva Health, which recruits junior doctors to work in Australia and New Zealand, claims that it has had close to 1,000 enquiries from junior doctors seeking employment overseas.

"There's been a massive increase in the number of doctors looking for work abroad," said Alex Jack, UK manager at Geneva Health.

"I guess junior doctors feel that they don't really have a future over here because they've been so badly treated by the NHS.

"It does, however, mean that people are coming to recruitment agencies like ours to explore their options."

The problems started when the introduction of a new training system, called Modernising Medical Careers, created a bottleneck this year as about 29,000 doctors who left medical school two, three and four years ago competed to get on the same rung of the training ladder, which has 15,600 places.

On 1 August, 13,000 doctors took up posts at hospitals across England, following a training scheme which reduced the amount of training hours from 21,000 to 6,000 and required medics to specialise earlier in their careers.

However, 16,000 are still waiting to find out whether they have received one of just 2,300 posts to be filled in a second round of applications, due to end in October.

"I know first-hand of individuals who are having difficulty finding a position," said Jack.

Of the recruitment system, he said: "I don't think the problem has been overplayed. A lot of doctors don't see themselves making progress over here and they have become disillusioned with the NHS."

In response, a Department of Health spokesman told Recruiter: "Doctors should not leave the profession because of the problems we have seen this year. We have apologised to those who have been caused distress and anxiety by those problems.

"But in the long run we want to make sure that training for doctors will be significantly improved in the future, and that there is a much clearer career progression through a defined structure.

"This will not only lead to a better career structure for doctors, but also better care for patients."