Many persons advising you here are medical students who dont have much of an idea of whats in store in the selecion process. UK training has no edge over any other kind of training from anywhere else in the world, specially in surgical branches. Residents in many 3rd world training centers have a higher case load & more experience under their belt before coming over to the UK or the US. This reflects in their confidence in operating & post-op management. Maybe you havent seen this as the higher specialties in UK are very prejudiced in taking foreigners & you may not have come across foreign trained surgeons in your neurosurgical training. Neurosurgeons from Brazil, India or Nigeria are usually amongst the better students in their class & in no way inferior, they may have better OR skills than those in the UK.
Here in the US, 80 hrs is the limit for medical residencies, with several of them doing a 100-110 hrs in the busier programs. It is a little higher for surgical residencies, usually 90-120. Neurosurgery is legally allowed to have 88hrs per week but end up doing 110-150hrs.
Granted things have changed in the UK since I left in 2004. But the hrs are still far less than here, regardless of how much you want to exaggerate them. The pay is still much higher than here & it is not as expensive to live there compared to the US. The SHOs there get paid at least twice as high for half as much work-about 4 times higher per hour after taxes & the UK is 1.5-2 times as expensive as the US (not taking into account the more expensive cities-NY, Chicago, LA, SF, Philadelphia etc. which can be as expensive as the UK). Heck, I bought my first car in the US with a full down payment from the $33,000 I had saved in the 10 months I worked in the UK on an A2/B1 band. I didnt have to break a sweat to save that amount. I did no locum work to earn this. There is no way you can make that kind of money in the US, even if you moonlight; assuming you can get an H-1 visa from a university NSx program on which you are allowed to moonlight after 1 yr training.
Whatever "perks" you are talking about are pretty much non-existent here. Maybe a $500-1000 book fund/residency (all 3/7 for NSx years) or a journal subscription if in one of the University programs (amounting to a couple of hundred bucks an year) but nothing more. Such pittance of a perk is available even in the UK as free hospital parking (not available in most US programs amounting to 20 to 70 bucks per month), cheaper health deductions for the NHS, shorter driving distances to work & for pleasure ( I would drive 17 miles ONE way to live in a good neighbourhood during my residency), cheaper public transport (British Rail is pretty cheap when you compare it to flying anywhere in the US for holidays, interviews or meetings) & cheaper rent unless you are living in central London. There is almost no hospital housing in the US barring a few NY programs where you can get cockroach & rat (yes I mean RAT) infested hovels for $150 cheaper than the best basement studios. Renting in and around Manhattan, Long Island, Chicago or LA/SF can be a painful drain on your stipend. Many US grads have a loan out if they want to rent a good apartment.
Owning a car in the bigger cities can also be a drain, specially with insurance running into a couple of hundred a month for the first few years. Barring a few of the larger cities, public transport is non-existent. Some of the larger cities like Chicago have a very inadequate public transport system. You can end up covering 2-3 hospitals anywhere from a couple of miles to 25 miles apart. You will need a car.
All FMGs I have seen in NSx are from the 3rd world, though I may not be exposed to all the programs. Almost all of them that I know had basic NSx training from their home country (post-graduate) & were repeating their residencies here. They had loads of research in Japan, Singapore or Australia & quite a few publications.
And yes I had a sporty little four door 3 series burgundy BMW in Bristol which I had to trade for a staid grey 4-cyl Honda Accord when I moved to the US. My Irish cottage-mate had a 6 cyl metallic champagne VW GTX. Not to speak of the Singapoean GF I had to trade in for a wife here!!! I cant put up with the snooty American girls (most, not all).
US docs do make a lot more than their European/UK counterparts, but at the cost of a much busier & tense lifestyle. I am not discouraging you from coming here. I am here myself after being in the UK. But it was more for want of better training opportunities in good centers. Like I said before, the UK needs to grow out of its colonial mindset vis-a-vis foreign workers. In the US things are not perfect, but still more fair than in Europe. Your reasons for moving here seem to be monetary, but you will have a much worse life & will be in the courts more often.
But then, I guess you know better. Maybe the Americans have a different yardstick for the their special friends, the Brits.
Best of luck, anyways.
Cheers
(ies) are you applying for?