AIBU to ask you to tell me where I should move to?

[theukismyoyster]

I am a medical student about to start my final year of university in September.

In our final year of university, we have to rank where in the country we would like to have our first job out of uni as a doctor.
(The better you do in your final exams, the higher the chance that you get given the region you've ranked highest.)

The UK is divided up into twenty regions for ranking purposes, which this map shows.

However, there are so many regions on that map that I have got no idea about in terms of what it is like to live there! So I thought I'd ask the lovely people of Mumsnet.

Perhaps you think the area you live is the best place in the UK or perhaps there's an area in the UK you wish you could move to that you could suggest to me?

Important points:
-I will be 26 years old, and I have no children and no partner, so I have no particular part of the country that I need to be.
-I am at university in London currently and would quite like to experience somewhere other than London.
-I cannot and will not be able to drive for medical reasons, so a region with good public transport links within it is vital.
-Someone I could afford to buy a house in one day would be great!

• You rank the regions, but don't get to pick which city/town within the region at this stage, so a region with lots of lovely towns/cities in would be ideal, rather than a region with one great town but the rest awful.

If you were me and the UK was your oyster (apart from needing good public transport), where in the UK would you rank first and why?

Scotland, property is much better value. Lots of good hospitals.

The big cities, where the OP will need to stay due to needing good transport as he/she cannot drive, are all not very cheap places to live and not really any cheaper than any other UK city outside perhaps London .

Scotland or north east for me

Cambridgeshire. We have the guided bus route that can get you in to Cambs city centre (Addenbrookes) quickly and frequently. Although the city is expensive to live in, there are lots of lovely villages around. St Ives is lovely and on the guided busway.

@Cosentyx
You don’t need to live right in city centres in Scotland and public transport is good, prices are nowhere near SE property prices.

I’d be off to Scotland, Edinburgh, Glasgow or up and coming Dundee.

You don’t need to live right in city centres in Scotland and public transport is good, prices are nowhere near SE property prices.

If you're working over a 24-hour schedule, cannot drive and need to be near work it's probably best to live in or near city centre, of course it's not as expensive as London excepting certain places in Edinburgh, not at all cheap. Edinburgh can definitely approach SE prices (full of SEers in fact).

Some parts of Scotland or the North maybe be cheaper too

Maybe not Edinburgh then- cheaper places e.g. Stirling area or Borders. My GP says Borders General is a lovely hospital

Scotland or north of England

Region 7 the northeast and northwest. The hospitals are mostly in towns/cities with reasonably good transport, if you got placed somewhere less nice there are trains/buses/metro to nicer places not far away. There are good local train lines east to west for Newcastle, hexham, Carlisle etc.

On a more serious note - is there an option to do Cambridge? I know a few people who have passed through adenbrooks (how the hell do you spell that?) and loved it. And Cambridge is ideal for a non-driver

Still think it's a great idea for the OP to come on over to Scotland .

Tricky. Some of the areas are so big!

West Midlands Central would be ok, I imagine it's Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield and maybe a bit of Sandwell. It's very bus centric and not much is 24hr but outside of the awkward middle of the night you'll be able to get anywhere.

I think the WM South area is gonna be toward Worcester/Malverns. Very pretty, but you'll struggle on public transport.

Maybe North West - assume that's Stafford, Manchester, Liverpool, Crewe. Greater Manchester is great for transport, better than West Midlands.

I don't know enough about the other areas on the map! Good luck.

I can’t believe they rank the whole of Scotland as one area.

I don't drive OP and I live in the east Midlands. Transport links are brilliant, I'm in between Nottingham and Derby like a PP. Very good bus services to the major cities, trains and Nottingham also has the tram system.

I've lived in Devon and the transport was terrible for a non driver, last buses at 11pm from the major cities! And only one every hour on Sundays.

If you can’t drive, stick to big cities. Public transport in the countryside and smaller towns is practically non existent.

As a junior doctor you won’t be earning much so choose somewhere cheap(ish).

Glasgow would be a great option.

Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle good teaching hospitals in large cities but with easy access to beautiful countryside using reasonable public transport. Affordable houses on NHS salary

Oh and property prices here are still very affordable!

Isn't Cambridge very very expensive so the OP will struggle if she wants to buy a house on here own on a junior doctor's salary.

Public transport and shift work is going to be a challenge in the regions. Even in Leeds, one of the top 5 cities by population size has zero public transport between about 11 pm and 5 am. Could you cycle OP?

Are you likely to get a big city based teaching hospital or are there inconveniently located rural hospitals that you'd want to avoid?

Some of the areas are too diverse to know what you'd get. All of Scotland for example - obviously you could get Edinburgh or Glasgow, but what if you got a smaller, more remote hospital? Similar for Yorkshire, Wales, East Anglia. Unless all the placements are at big centrally located hospitals - that would help a lot.

Newcastle, cheap to live very central / close to the hospitals.

But the region that includes Newcastle also includes Carlisle, which may be completely different.

OP are you able to get any special dispensation due to your medical condition, making an area with good public transport a must?

You're really stuck outside of London without being able to drive. I'm guessing you'll be on all types of shifts and, for example, where I live in Leeds you wouldn't be able to rely on public transport to get you there on time. A) it's unreliable at best and B) it generally only starts running at 5am and last busses around 11.

@SophyStantonLacy thank you for your helpful reply! Could you tell me what you mean by struggle for specialist training? Is that in terms of transport?

Although you could live in Leeds City centre and therefore in walking distance of LGI and St James' (although I wouldn't recommend walking to/from the latter out of hours).