article_snippet: Hospitals are paying up to £3,200 a shift to hire locum doctors in A&E.
article_snippet: Full-time doctors say it is ‘demoralising’ working alongside locums earning three or four times as much.
article_snippet: Nonetheless, it is still a considerable amount bearing in mind the locum will have spent much of the shift asleep
article_snippet: The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that at one trust, Airedale in West Yorkshire, more than 70 per cent of all doctors’ shifts between Christmas and New Year were filled by locums.
article_snippet: At the Heart of England NHS trust, 58 per cent of shifts between Christmas and New Year New Year were filled by locums, while at the Royal Bolton it was 52 per cent.
article_snippet: It can be very demoralising to be working alongside somebody with much less experience, much more junior, who is earning a multiple income compared to you.
article_snippet: Last month a scathing report by the Public Accounts Committee warned that doctors and nurses were quitting to become locums because the pay rates were three or four times higher.
article_snippet: Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s council, which represents doctors, said: ‘Locums play a vital role in the NHS but Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association’s council, which represents doctors should not be used as a long-term solution.
article_snippet: Greater reliance on locums is a sign of stress on the system and the result of poor workforce planning by government.
highlights_snippet: Short-staffed NHS trusts pay thousands for locum doctors .
  