ArticleBMJ open2022
Emergency contracting and the delivery of elective care services across the English National Health Service and independent sector during COVID-19: a descriptive analysis.
Article in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Strategies to strengthen elective surgery systems during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: systematic review and framework development.The British journal of surgery · 2024Pooled it
- Trends in kidney stone disease: a 5-year update of stone management in England and Scotland.BJU international · 2026Article
- Financing Regimes and Case-Mix Complexity in Psychiatric Hospitals Beyond the Pandemic Shock-Insights from a Regional European Healthcare System.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- UK national newspapers' representation of cancer patients and their care during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic: Invoking and undermining solidarity?Sociology of health & illness · 2024Article
- Patient outcomes, efficiency, and adverse events for elective hip and knee replacement in private and NHS hospitals: a population-based cohort study in England.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2024Article
- Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary care for cardiovascular disease in the UK: an electronic health record analysis across three countries.European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFollowing a virtual standstill in the delivery of elective procedures in England, a national block contract between the NHS and the independent sector aimed to help restart surgical care. This study aims to describe subsequent changes in trends in elective care service delivery following implementation of the initial iteration of this contract.
methodsPopulation-based retrospective cohort study, assessing the delivery of all publicly funded and privately funded elective care delivered in England between 1 April 2020 and 31 July 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. Discharge data from the Hospital Episode Statistics and private healthcare data from the Private Health Information Network was stratified by specialty, procedure, length of stay and patient complexity in terms of age and Charlson Comorbidity Index.
resultsCOVID-19 significantly reduced publicly funded elective care activity, though changes were more pronounced in the independent sector (-65.1%) compared with the NHS (-52.7%), whereas reductions in privately funded elective care activity were similar in both independent sector hospitals (-74.2%) and NHS hospitals (-72.9%). Patient complexity increased in the independent sector compared with the previous year, with mixed findings in NHS hospitals. Most specialties, irrespective of sector or funding mechanisms, experienced a reduction in hospital admissions. However, some specialities, including medical oncology, clinical oncology, clinical haematology and cardiology, experienced an increase in publicly-funded elective care activity in the independent sector.
conclusionElective care delivered by the independent sector remained significantly below historic levels, although this overlooks significant variation between regions and specialities. There may be opportunities to learn from regions which achieved more significant increases in publicly funded elective care in independent sector providers as a strategy to address the growing backlog of elective care.
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