Scotland has lost out after junior doctors who wanted to work north of the border were snapped up by English health authorities, it has been claimed.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said some English regions offered budding surgeons and physicians training jobs before Scotland in the annual recruitment round, then put them under pressure by threatening anyone who changed their minds with referral to the disciplinary body, the General Medical Council (GMC).

Dr Alan Robertson, chairman of the BMA's Scottish junior doctors committee, said doctors had definitely been lost to Scotland because of the situation, which comes amid massive competition for posts.

NHS Education for Scotland, which oversees specialty medical training recruitment, said there were 5287 applicants for 1317 vacancies - more than four candidates for every slot.

Last year scores of Scottish doctors who failed to secure positions faced redundancy until Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon stepped in to extend existing contracts. It is too early to know if some doctors will find themselves without work again this summer.

However, Dr Robertson said one of the biggest issues so far this year had been Scotland and different regions of England making job offers at different times. He said Scotland had announced when it was planning to recruit, but some regions of England then began to issue offers "really early, hoping to take the best".

Junior doctors who wanted to accept then found themselves being asked to withdraw all their other applications, according to the BMA, and were threatened with referral to the GMC if they took another job.

Dr Robertson said: "It was putting trainees in a difficult position where they wanted to take a Scottish offer but the English deaneries were not very happy about them pulling out. Some were sounding fairly threatening in their tone and some trainees felt they could not risk, having accepted, going back on that.

"They were getting threatened with a referral to the GMC. You can understand, for trainees, it would put a bit of fear into them."

The GMC said such cases would be judged on their individual merits.

A spokesman said: "The factors we might take into account in considering a complaint include: the nature of the post; alternatives available to the employer at the time to obtain cover; any evidence of adverse impact on patient care and any concern that failure to give sufficient notice was part of a wider problem in the doctor's conduct or performance."

Dr Robertson is appealing for the release of offers to be co-ordinated across the UK in future to avoid a repeat of the problem. Four years ago, reports on the future of the medical workforce in Scotland warned too many doctors were quitting the country.

Efforts have been made to address the situation and after last year's fiasco, when there was a flood of overseas applicants, the Scottish Government announced it was introducing a question on the application form for specialist training to test if candidates wanted to work in Scotland or were just seeking any job.

The Scottish Government said steps had also been taken to help Scottish candidates respond to early job offers from England this spring.

Ms Sturgeon said: "We were aware of concerns about the lack of a UK timetable for managing the offers process and of allegations of pressures on candidates to withdraw from further interviews once they had received an offer in England.

"In response we took action to inform Scottish applicants of their ranking at interview so they could make an informed decision on the likelihood or otherwise of receiving an offer of a Scottish training post."

Officials expected around 1400 junior doctors based in Scotland to chase specialty training positions this year.

A number of jobs are yet to be filled and 181 adverts are expected to appear in the British Medical Journal on Saturday.