Although some hospitals established COVID-19-free surgical pathways to create safe elective surgery capacity,3 the National Health Service (NHS) in England has not returned to pre-pandemic elective surgery activity levels.
Data suggest that if the number of COVID-19 inpatients were to reach levels seen in April, 2020, rather than continue at levels seen in October, 2021, 100 273 fewer elective surgical procedures would take place over the next 3 months—a 15·3% reduction.
Further disruption to elective surgery seems inevitable unless robust measures are urgently introduced to prevent escalating COVID-19 hospitalisation rates in England. Delayed implementation of COVID-19 mitigation measures risks lockdown, which itself could amplify disruption to urgent surgery.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02836-1/fulltext
