Re: pay scale and shifts
To work in the UK you will need to register with the NMC and I understand this is a fairly lengthy process (although I don't know from personal experience as I am from the UK)
Not sure about agencies, and far as London hospitals it depends of what you want to do really and they tend to have slightly different specialities and where the vacancies are.
London is very expensive to live in with house prices being the highest in the UK but you may well find that some of the hospitals offer accommodation deals for their staff to live in. I know that most of the hospitals I have worked in offer accommodation at a reasonable rate and because of the cost of living there London salaries have a London Weighting so you actually get paid more than you would do living elsewhere in the country.
I have links in my blog (the link can be found in my signature) of what you need to do to register in the UK and work
NHS jobs can be found at
www.jobs.nhs.uk
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