Dr. Ruth Hardstaff (MBBS MD MRCS FRCS FRACS)

Dr Ruth Hardstaff has operated on me twice now. Once for appendicitis and once for hernia surgery.

There’s a certain type of specialist where within about thirty seconds of speaking to them, you realise you’re dealing with someone operating at a very different intellectual level. Dr Hardstaff is one of those people. Not in an arrogant way whatsoever. Quite the opposite actually. Calm, grounded, thoughtful, quietly confident.

You immediately feel safe around her.

Both times I dealt with her, she took the time to properly explain everything. Risks, procedures, recovery expectations, the reasoning behind decisions. Nothing felt rushed or transactional. She answered every question thoroughly and never made me feel like I was being processed through a conveyor belt.

What stood out most to me personally was how she interacted with my three-year-old daughter before surgery. She spent time talking with her properly, calming the room down without making a performance out of it. That level of emotional intelligence matters more than people realise in medical settings.

Technically, she’s obviously extremely skilled. Her background is frankly intimidating in the best possible way. Transplant surgery, hepatobiliary fellowships, organ retrieval programs, years across the UK and Australia. But the thing patients actually remember is how someone makes them feel when they’re vulnerable.

And Dr Hardstaff is exceptional at that.

Another thing I respect enormously is her no out-of-pocket model. In an era where healthcare increasingly feels financialised and opaque, that choice says a lot about her character and priorities to me. It communicates integrity.

Nobody wants to need surgery. But if you do, having someone calm, brilliant and deeply human guiding the process makes an enormous difference.

You genuinely won’t find many surgeons better than her.