Guide for new Expats in UK:
Prepare for a shock - in Britain the buses are no longer all red nor are all the taxis black and the sedan chair is now seldom seen on the streets of London. But for all that we still have a wonderful heritage to offer the overseas visitor. You will like it in Britain
Nevertheless our transportation system can be viewed as quaint, and our roads can vary from gridlock to pleasant open air motoring. We do insist on driving on the correct side of the road.
This following list is a brief introduction to several areas that you should know before moving to UK:
1. Healthcare in the United Kingdom
Healthcare in the United Kingdom is mainly provided by four publicly-funded health care systems to all UK permanent residents that is free at the point of need and paid for from general taxation in the United Kingdom. Healthcare is a devolved matter and so England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales each has its own system with different policies and priorities though the degree of co-operation usually conceals the difference from cross-border users of the services. Although commonly referred to as the "National Health Service" ("NHS") across the UK, the National Health Service covers England with NHS Scotland covering Scotland, NHS Wales covering Wales and the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety providing healthcare in Northern Ireland in the guise of Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.
In addition to the public NHS systems (which dominate healthcare in the UK), private healthcare and a wide variety of alternative and complementary treatments are available.
1.1 Advice services
Each NHS system runs 24 hour confidential advisory services: NHS Direct provides a telephone-based service for England, NHS Direct Wales/Galw Iechyd Cymru provides a similar service in Wales while Scotland has NHS24.
1.2 Ambulance services
Each public healthcare system provides free ambulance services for patients facing life-threatening emergencies or if ordered by hospitals or GPs when patients need the specialist transport only available from ambulance crews or are not fit to be sent home by car or public transport. In some areas these services are supplemented when necessary by the voluntary ambulance services (British Red Cross, St John Ambulance and the St Andrews Ambulance Association). Where needed, patient transport services by air are provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service, various ambulance trusts in England and Wales (some jointly operated with police helicopter services) with emergency air transport also provided by naval, military and air force aircraft of whatever type might be appropriate or available on each occasion; on more than one occasion this has led to new-born babies needing special care being flown long distances in Hercules transport aircraft or similar.
1.3 Cost recovery in exceptional circumstances
In general, the cost of NHS health care is met from taxation and the NHS does not bill for its services. Each NHS system, however, reserves the right to claim compensation for treatment required as a result of the negligence of others. For example, when compensation is received from motor insurance companies through the Injury Costs Recovery Scheme following the determination of fault in motor accidents. Foreign visitors to the UK are not charged for emergency NHS treatment to stabilize a health problem that has started in the UK during their visit but cannot receive any other NHS services. If it becomes clear that a patient has received services who was not in fact eligible to receive free treatment, the NHS will recover costs from the patient.
1.4 Dentistry
Each NHS system provides dental services through private dental practises and dentists can only charge NHS patients at set rates (though the rates vary between countries.) Patients opting to be treated privately do not receive any NHS funding for the treatment. About half of the income of dentists comes from work sub-contracted from the NHS. Not all dentists choose to do NHS work and there is a trend of movement from the NHS to private dentistry.
1.5 General practitioners
Each NHS system uses General Practitioners (GPs) to provide primary healthcare for patients and to make referrals to services as necessary, whether for tests or treatments. GPs are qualified doctors, typically working in business practices that deal exclusively with NHS patients and receive fees based on the number of patients and the different services provided by the practice under the GP contract. Doctors are not allowed to charge for services provided as part of the contract, which almost all care is. All people are eligible for registration with a GP, usually of the patient's choosing, though the GP must be local to the area in which the person lives. GPs can only reject patients in exceptional circumstances.
1.6 Health Centres and Clinics
Health Centres close to residential areas are provided as part of the free public health service. They typically provide care that is considered more routine and less invasive than the type of surgeries and procedures that take place in the hospital. Opthalmology, dentistry, wound dressings re-dressing, infant check-ups and vaccinations, are typical areas of practice to be found in such places. Medical services are typically provided by nurse practitioners and visiting specialist doctors.
1.7 Pharmacies
Each NHS system uses pharmacies to supply prescription drugs. Pharmacies (other than those within hospitals) are privately owned but have contracts with the relevant health service.
1.8 Cost control
Each constituent part of the NHS (e.g. a trust or GP practice) is responsible for overall control of costs within its area of operation.
The National Audit Office reports annually on the summarised consolidated accounts of the NHS, and Audit Scotland performs the same function for NHS Scotland.
In England and Wales, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) sets guidelines for medical practitioners as to how various conditions should be treated and whether or not a particular treatment should be funded. In Scotland, the Scottish Medicines Consortium performs a similar function. However, the Scottish system makes some new drugs available for prescription more quickly than in the rest of the UK which has led to complaints.
1.9 Prescriptions
In England, patients under 16 years old (19 years if still in full-time education) or over 59 years will get the drug for free. There are also exemptions for people with certain medical conditions, and those on low incomes. Prescribed contraception is also issued free of charge (e.g. contraceptive pills). Otherwise, as of April 2008, a fixed charge of £7.10 is payable per item.
In Northern Ireland, patients under 16 years old (19 years if still in full-time education) or over 59 years will get the drug for free. There are also exemptions for people with certain medical conditions, and those on low incomes. Prescribed contraception is also issued free of charge (e.g. contraceptive pills). Otherwise, as of April 2008, a fixed charge of £6.85 is payable per item.
In Scotland, patients under 16 years old (19 years if still in full-time education) or over 59 years will get the drug for free. There are also exemptions for people with certain medical conditions, and those on low incomes. Prescribed contraception is also issued free of charge (e.g. contraceptive pills). Otherwise, as of April 2008, a fixed charge of £5 is payable per item with the intention is to phase out prescription charges before 2011.
In Wales, prescription charges have been abolished and all prescription drugs are now dispensed without charge.
1.10 Role of private sector in public healthcare
Whereas the UK government is expanding the role of the private sector within the NHS in England, the current Scottish government is moving in the opposite direction, actively reducing the role of the private sector within public healthcare in Scotlandand planning legislation to prevent the possibility of private companies running GP practices in future.
2. Hotels
You will find following information useful when you move to UK and have to search for a flat
- Britain does have big hotel chains, but they are not the norm that they are in the USA. Most UK hotels are privately owned. The group hotels tend to be more expensive and less personal.
- Your best bet is to get hold of a good (and reputable) guide book. There are a lot of books portaining to be guide books, but that are merely compendiums of paid adverts for hotels
- The AA Hotel book and the Michelin Guide to Britain are the ones which cover the most hotels and also have independant inspections. Their weakness is that the write ups on each hotel are minimal
- Or you could try the Tourist Boards "Commended Hotels" book which does at least have photographs, but is not as comprehensive
- Britain does not have a unified, national hotel grading system. You will see hotels boastings both stars (from AA or RAC or Tourist Board). They are not always comparable
- The best one to follow is the AA stars. They awards 1 to 5 stars based solely on the hotels facilities - note they are nothing to do with quality. Quality marks are awarded separately. So confusingly a 2 star hotel may have a higher quality mark than a 3 star (and indeed cost more)
- To get a range of hotels try Country House Hotels for an easy to find selection of hotels
- If you are coming to Cornwall, then stay with us at Corisande Manor, Cornwall
2.1 Bed and Breakfast:
- In Britain this invariably refers to rooms available in private houses.
- You will find a forest of signs advertising Bed & breakfast establishments on the outskirts of tourist towns and in the countryside in touring areas like the West Country or the Cotswolds
- Standards vary from the sublime (which will cost you more than a good hotel) to the ridiculous (rather you than me!)
- Prices in country areas start around £15 per person per night for room and breakfast, and will vary with season.. B & Bs in towns will cost more.
- If you are going to use B&Bs then for goodness sake buy a good guide book. You will have far fewer problems with a guide book than if you take pot luck.
Buy a guide book at any branch of W H Smith, a national chain of newsagents that you will find on virtually every high street.
2.2 Youth Hostels:
- There are Youth Hostels all over Britain. They are well situated (usuall) in towns. There are also large numbers in the countryside
- Join the International Youth Hostel Federation to get the benefits of membership
3. Airports in London:
3.1 Heathrow is about 25 km west of the city centre
- http://www.baa.co.uk/ runs the airport and supplies web information and maps
- There is a central bus/underground station
- this is easy to get to - just follow the signs and use one of the free trollies
- the underground (Picadilly line)costs under £4 and takes about 40 minutes to the centre - recommended
- the Airbus to London runs every 20 minutes, costs about £6 - use it if you have a lot of luggage
- If you do not need to go to London, there is a bus to Reading train Station for trains to the West Country and Cotswolds
3.2 London Gatwick is about 45 km to the south
- the train is the best option, it gets you in to London's Victoria station, where you can pick up a taxi or tube
- train costs about £9, take only 30 mins and run every 15 to 30 minutes
- there is a bus no777, which costs £7.50
- the http://www.baa.co.uk/ web site has maps and other info on Gatwick
- do not even think about a taxi, but if you do check out http://www.proteus.demon.co.uk/taxi.htmll
There are connecting buses to Heathrow if you need one
4. Buses:
The largest national coach company is National Express. They cover the whole country, and do offer various deals, some of which are only available to overseas visitors. Most long distance coaches are fairly comfortable.
The usual deals are
- Buy a special card for around £12 and get a discount of 30% on any travel
- Buy a Tourist Trail Pass (£50 for 3 days to £150 for 30 days) and go anywhere by coach
- Coach jouneys to London use Victoria Coach Station
As well as National Express there are lots of regional companies that get you to the smaller towns, or else round an area on a more regular basis.
For example here in Cornwall, National Express will only operate a limited number of services a day into Newquay, but Western National the local company will operte lots - the drawback is of course that you would have to pay for the Western National services if you had a National Express card.
If you want to use buses, remember that journeys do take a long time, often overnight on longer routes
5. Public Holidays:
Public Holidays, called Bank Holidays in Britain, were introduced in Victorian times as a way of the working classes getting some respite from the grind of unremitting work. That has ceased to be a reason, Bank Holidays are now a tradition.
Christmas and New Year is the one time that most British people take a real public holiday.The whole nation virtually closes down for two weeks. Easter is not particularly a family holiday time, nor or the other Bank Holidays. However they do mean that millions of people get into their cars and head for the coast. Sensible people stay off the roads on Public Holidays. Tourists need to be aware of them as hotels in resort areas will have no spare rooms if you turn up without a reservation.
If the Bank Holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then the government decree the following Monday as the Holiday
- January 1st, New Years day
- Good Friday
- Easter Monday, day after Easter
- The first Monday in May
- The last Monday in May
- The last Monday in August
- Christmas Day, 25th December
- Boxing Day, 26th December
- Scotland and Northern Ireland have slightly different public holidays
Our schools have about two weeks off at Christmas and Easter, plus around 6 weeks from mid July to end August. The holiday areas obviously fill up then too.
6. Telephones
In the good old days our telephone boxes were red, then the newly privatised British Telecom paid a fortune to a design company for a "new image" and a hundred years of history went out the window. If you can find one now, it is grey. The old red boxes are now collectors items and change hands in the antique trade for big money (you will never get one in your suitcase though)
You can pay for a call in three ways
Cash: the boxes take 10p, 20p, 50p and £1 coins
Phonecard: phonecards can be bought from post offices and newsagents
Credit card: normal range of credit cards taken
However Murphy's Law usually applies and if you have a phonecard then the phone box you find only takes cash, and if you only have cash it only takes phonecards. The only way round this dilemma is to carry both. If you are a tourist, then forget the phonecards, and just keep trying to find one that will take cash.
Very few will take credit cards.
6.1 Costs
* UK calls are much more expensive between 8 am and 6 p.m. on weekdays
*all 0800 numbers are free, but ones that have a number starting with e.g 0890 are not free but premium numbers and very expensive. The US Embassy uses these premium numbers!
6.2 Special numbers:
emergency only: 999
UK operator: 100
International Operator: 155
Directory Enquirie 192 (being phased out)
7. Postal Services
Postage stamps are available at post offices (most towns have one on the high street), and at sub post offices (these are a quirky, useful British institution, which brings postal services to small towns, suburbs and villages - the sub-post office will sell many other things too). In addition many newsagent now can sell books of stamps.
Tourists may find it difficult to get the stamps they need or the advice they require from newsagents - who sell books of stamps in the denominations required for internal UK postage. Seek out a post office when you can
Post boxes are still happily red, and are fairly easy to find. Apart from Sundays, collections are usually at least twice daily, even in rural areas.
8. Currency:
- British currency is the Pound sterling - normally written £
- You will find notes worth £50, £20, £10, £5
- And coins worth 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, and £1
- The government is always monkeying around with the money - remember when we had pounds, shillings and pence. New coins are repeatedly being introduced both in size and value (usually to make them smaller)
- Try to avoid getting £50 notes. The British are deeply suspicious of them, and most places you try to spend them will assume you are laundering drug money, and treat you accordingly.
- On balance the British still prefer real money to credit cards
If in Scotland you will find they issue different bank notes. Both English, Scottish and Northern Irish bank notes are legal tender anywhere in Britain. However the English are deeply suspicious of "foreign" money and may well decline to take the other notes. Best to change them to English notes before you leave Scotland (or go to an English bank -there should be no charge for changing it!)
8.1 Banks:
- Opening hours are variable, but in large towns you should find a high street bank open between 9.30 and 4.30
- In smaller towns banks may close at 3 p.m., close on odd days in the week, and close on Saturdays
- Banks also close on public holidays
- They will change currency and travellers cheques, and normally charge less than Bureaux de Change.
You can find banks on all high streets ( they make so much money that they can afford the rent). the main banks are Barclays, Lloyds, Midland and National Westminster in England. And in Scotland the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland
8.2 Credit Cards
- The main cards used in Britain are Visa and MasterCard (still often referred to as Access)
American Express and Diners are more difficult to use. They charge higher commissions to retailers and hence are not so widely accepted. Leave them at home unless you really have no choice.
8.3 VAT:
- Stands for "value added tax"
- You do not have to be bored with the details of how it is calculated, you just need to know that it is effectively a sales tax.
- The government extract 17.5% of the value of everything we buy
- However you do not have to worry about the calculation. It is included in all prices that you will see displayed. In other words your hotel room rate, bus fare, pint of beer or ham sandwich will all have the Vat already added when you see the displayed price
- So its not like the sneaky way they add sales tax on as an extra at the checkout of US stores!
There are ways of getting a refund of Vat on anything you export outside the European Union. It is very complicated - the government do not want you to go to the trouble of getting Vat back. If you have bought goods that were very expensive in Britain, then ask the supplier how you claim the vat back - on a Wedgwood dinner service or a Rolls Royce motor car, it is probably worth the effort.
8.4 Tipping:
- Happily tipping is dying out in Britain
- Taxis are about the only place where you will have real unpleasantness if you do not tip them at least 10%
- Hotel prices normally include service - the odd hotel that insists that service is an optional extra will make it very clear. There is no need to add anything to bills that already include service
If you do get a man to carry your bag, I guess he expects extra for that, especially in large London hotels
9. Trains:
Since our railway system was privatised, I do not think that anyone really knows who is running the trains. The tracks are owned by one company, but the trains are run by many operating companies. Each of these operating companies has bid for the right to operate trains on a certain route- it then has a monopoly on that route for a number of years before the franchise comes up for renewal.
For example this means that if you are in Penzance, different companies will operate the trains that would take you to London or to Scotland. The result is that it has prooved difficult for travellers to get reliable information if they wish to take a journey that involves changing trains onto a different companies network.
But in spite of this it would appear that rail passes for unlimited travel in britain can still be purchsed, provided that they are bought outside Britain (they don't want the natives getting any good deals).
If you are buying a ticket inside Britain remember that there are always lots of deals, senior citazens, young persons (under 25), students all get concessions, as do Day Returns and Off Peak. If you travel outside peak hours - as a guide after 9.30 in the morning, and not between 4pm and 6pm travel is very much cheaper. on top of that you get the other savings for age, travel card, etc.
There are not many steam trains still running, and most of those steam trains that do run are on private lines and only run for a few mile. There is also the National Railway Museum at York which has a fantastic coillection of real trains.
10. Weather:
The UK climate is completely unpredictable - hence an obsession with weather forecasts. You would probably be as well off examining a piece of seaweed to predict the weather, as you would looking at the weather forecasts. Nevertheless this has not stopped an industry being built on the forecasting business.
The British climate is mild and maritime, normally not going much below zero even in the depths of winter, and never much above 25º C in summer. Most of the time it is between 10º and 20º C.
We do not have any big mountains, but obviously the further north you go and the higher above sea level you go, particularly in winter, then the colder it will be.
However during the main tourist season, the weather is invariably mild (20 to 25º C).
You can always confuse yourself by listening to the Weather Forecast. Invariably it will tell you the day will be cloudy with sunny intervals and some rain at times. It is also believed that as one progresses to the Celtic fringes of Britain, the weather forecast becomes even more unreliable, as it is London orientated!
