The trade union for locum doctors has urged its members to boycott agencies taking part in the NHS scheme designed to drive down the cost of hiring them.

The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (NHS PASA) has drawn up a list of agencies that can supply locums to the NHS at a variety of different pay rates.

But the trade union has slammed the arrangement as uncompetitive because it encourages NHS trusts to use poorly qualified doctors.

Shehnaz Somjee, founder of the Locum Doctors Association, has urged members not to sign up to agencies supplying doctors at greatly reduced rates.

Somjee explained: “We urge our doctors to work for the best quality agencies that offer the best rates and packages. We are strongly against the national contract – it is uncompetitive. The majority of the good doctors will not work for the lower rates.”

She added that hospitals and trusts employing cut-price locums risked litigation from patients that have not been treated properly.

But according to Hospital Doctor magazine, the NHS PASA has been responsible for a massive increase in pay rates for locum doctors.

Agencies bid blind to enter the national contract to supply temporary doctors – resulting in pay rates varying widely.

Doctors were then able to find these pay rates using the NHS PASA’s own website and simply joined the agencies that paid the most.

“After all the effort and the expense of the tendering process, they will have simply achieved a spectacular hike in agency costs of up to 42% overnight,” a spokesman for the agencies said.

•Nurses in London are underpaid compared with their peers in northern England, despite receiving special allowances.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that they are paid on average 14.7% less than their counterparts in the north. Due to the higher cost of living in the capital, they are £13 a week worse off, the statistics show.