Health system performance and health system preparedness for the post-pandemic impact of COVID-19: A review

ABSTRACT

Newly emerging infectious diseases have had damaging impacts on healthcare systems throughout history and have been most acute in weaker health systems. With the COVID-19 pandemic, even the well-developed health systems are struggling most to cope as the crisis deepens in the regions of Europe and America. This review article attempts to raise concerns for decision makers and health service providers to balance performance amid COVID-19 outbreak with the need to minimize deterioration in the health of people with pre-existing conditions. COVID-19 is now at the forefront of the minds of policy makers, health service providers and the public. All resources are being prioritized to contain the pandemic. Waiting times for elective surgeries have increased dramatically over recent years and it has become a major policy concern in many countries with health systems operated with public funds. The mortality and morbidity caused by COVID-19 may be outnumbered many times if adequate attention is not paid now to the burden of prevailing long waiting queues for the management of non-communicable diseases, cancers and other conditions. Mobilizing researcher support and evidence synthesis of existing research is crucial to health system preparedness for the post-pandemic impact of COVID-19.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• post-pandemic impact
• health systems
• elective surgeries
• waiting time

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Dimuthu Rathnayake

Dr. Dimuthu Rathnayake currently attached to the Centre of Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, UK. She is qualified in BDS, MSc, MD, and a specialist in Medical Administration. She joined to Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka in 2007, and served as a medical administrator in the positions of Deputy Regional Director of Health Services to Galle & Colombo districts and the Director to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases Sri Lanka.

Mike Clarke

Professor Mike Clarke currently attached to the Centre of Public Health, Queen's University Belfast, UK. He is the Director of the Northern Ireland Clinical Trials Unit and the Northern Ireland Methodology Hub, and Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Methodology Review Group. He is Podcast Editor for the Cochrane Library and a founder of Evidence Aid, seeking to make it easier to use evidence from reviews in natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies, and is the charity's Research Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Viraj Indika Jayasinghe

Dr. Viraj Indika Jayasinghe is qualified in BDS, MD (OMFS), MFDRCSI, FFDRCSI and working as a Senior Clinical Fellow in South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust, UK. He is an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon attached to the Ministry of Health Sri Lanka and has been serving in the government health care system as a clinician since 2007.