Strategies to strengthen elective surgery systems during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: systematic review and framework development.

"Disclosure The authors declare no conflict of interest."

"Funding This work was supported by a NIHR Global Health Research Unit Grant (NIHR 16.136.79). The funder had no role in the study design or writing of this report. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care."

"A systematic review was conducted to identify studies reporting adaptations to elective surgical systems during the pandemic that supported the continuation of elective surgery. PRISMA guidelines were followed and the protocol was registered prospectively (PROSPERO: CRD42023366245). A systematic search was undertaken in Embase and MEDLINE via Ovid on 23 November 2022. Search terms relating to ‘elective’, ‘surgery’, and ‘SARS-CoV-2’ were used. Searches were restricted to between 11 March 2020 and 22 November 2022. The full search strategy adopted can be found in . Grey literature and trial database searches were not conducted."