Rajinder Prasad Bhutiani (Raj) was born on 30 April 1950 in New Delhi. His parents were Ram Ditta Mal Bhutiani and Saraswati Devi and he was the youngest of their eight children. He studied medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College, University of Delhi, and graduated MB, BS in 1974. On travelling to the UK, he passed the fellowship of the college in 1980. He joined the staff of Ninewells Hospital in Dundee in 1981 as a surgical research registrar and, after three years there, moved to the Sunderland Royal Hospital as a senior surgical registrar, where he stayed from 1984 to 1987. Moving to Northwick Park Hospital in Watford, he worked with John David Lewis, a consultant vascular surgeon, and, in 2003, was appointed consultant general and paediatric surgeon. A pioneer of day surgery, Raj established the first dedicated day care surgery unit at Northwick Park and developed their innovative Walk in Walk out (WIWO) hernia clinic. He established a flourishing private practice at the Clementine Churchill Hospital where he worked for over 17 years and also spent over 10 years at the London Clinic. At Imperial College London’s faculty of medicine he was an honorary senior lecturer for 17 years or so, and was recognised by their award for teaching excellence. After contracting covid-19 while caring for patients in the initial outbreak of the pandemic, he was admitted to his own hospital on 31 March 2020, moving later to Harefield Hospital and the Brompton. He died on 18 February 2021 aged 70, and was survived by Nidhi, his wife of 36 years, their son Akshay and their daughter Aleka.