Elective Surgical Services Research Articles

Global evaluation and outcomes of cholecystectomy: protocol for a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study (GlobalSurg 4)

IntroductionCholecystectomy is one of the most common operations performed worldwide. Although laparoscopic surgery has been the ‘gold-standard’ approach for this operation, there is a paucity of global evidence around the...

Impact of delay due to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on elective surgical patients in a tertiary care center: a prospective observational study

Background: Elective services were withheld in most parts of the world to cope with the stress on the healthcare system caused by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, delaying elective services for more than a particular duration adversely affects disease outcomes. This study aimed to assess the effect on elective surgical patients due to delays caused by withholding elective surgical services to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic at our institution. Methods: This prospective observational study included all the patients who planned and waited for elective surgery till the day elective services were withheld at our institution (24 March 2020) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All patients were followed until the patients were operated on or three months after resuming elective operative services at our institution. These patients were assessed to determine the proportion of patients with worsening symptoms, stage progression, and needing emergency procedures or palliative surgery. Results: Breast cancer was the most common cancer among malignancy patients awaiting surgery. Compared to Breast cancer, Gastrointestinal cancers had a significantly higher proportion of patients with stage progression (61.3% vs. 90%, p=0.016) and mortality (6.5% vs. 53.3%, p<0.001). In benign patients, symptom progression was seen in 45.9%, and emergency surgery/procedures were needed in 5.4 %. Conclusions: Even though the so-called elective surgery, postponing these surgeries, particularly cancer surgeries, can compromise the outcomes of the patients if delayed for more than a certain point.

COVID-19 INFECTION RATE IN THE PERIOPERATIVE PERIOD FOR PATIENTS UNDERGOING ELECTIVE ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. The initial response to the pandemic included the cessation of routine services including elective orthopaedic surgery. There was apprehension among both surgeons and patients about restarting elective surgical services. The high mortality rate in perioperative patients who contract COVID-19 was of particular concern. The aim of this study was to identify the perioperative viral transmission rate in orthopaedic patients at our institution following the restart of elective surgery between August 2020 and November 2020 after the first wave of Covid in the UK.All patients who had their elective Orthopaedic surgeries at our institution from 1st August 2020 to 30th November 2020 were checked whether they were Covid positive or experienced COVID symptoms within 2 weeks after the operation. All patients were advised a 14-day period of comprehensive social distancing, 3 days of self-isolation and had a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of surgery and underwent surgery at a COVID free site. The patients were contacted and the hospital database was searched to identify those patients who were Covid positive or had Covid symptoms after the surgery. Baseline patient characteristics were recorded including age, gender, procedure, the subspeciality and admission type. Patients who underwent emergency procedures and trauma operations were excluded.Out of the 499 patients, 315 were contacted over telephone and hospital database was searched for the rest of the patients. We found that none of the patients were positive for COVID or had symptoms of COVID within two weeks of surgery. 5 patients were COVID positive with symptoms few months after the procedure and all of them recovered. There were 144 inpatient admissions and 353 day cases.The development of a COVID-free pathway for elective orthopaedic patients results in very low viral transmission rates. Findings of our study confirms that COVID-free elective pathway is an efficient process, and this could be implemented in future elective Orthopaedic surgeries during COVID times. Elective surgery can be safely resumed using dedicated pathways and procedures -Surgeons, hospital staff and patients should remain vigilant.

Elective surgical services need to start planning for summer pressures.

Elective surgical services need to start planning for summer pressures.

A systematic review of the accessibility, acceptability, safety, efficiency, clinical effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of private cataract and orthopedic surgery clinics.

Many publicly funded health systems use a mix of privately and publicly operated providers of care to deliver elective surgical services. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the role of privately operated but publicly funded provision of surgical services for adult patients who had cataract or orthopedic surgery within publicly funded health systems in high-income countries. Electronic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, OVID Embase, and EBSCO EconLit) were searched on 26 March 2021, and gray literature sources were searched on 6 April 2021. Two reviewers independently applied inclusion and exclusion criteria to identify studies, and extracted data. The outcomes evaluated include accessibility, acceptability, safety, clinical effectiveness, efficiency, and cost/cost-effectiveness. Twenty-nine primary studies met the inclusion criteria and were synthesized narratively. We found mixed results across each of our reported outcomes. Wait times were shorter for patients treated in private facilities. There was evidence that some private facilities cherry-pick or cream-skim by selecting less complex patients, which increases the postoperative length of stay and costs for public facilities, restricts access to private facilities for certain groups of patients, and increases inequality within the health system. Seven studies found improved safety outcomes in private facilities, noting that private patients had a lower preoperative risk of complications. Only two studies reported cost and cost-effectiveness outcomes. One costing study concluded that private facilities' costs were lower than those of public facilities, and a cost-utility study showed that private contracting to reduce public waiting times for joint replacement was cost-effective. Limited evidence exists that private-sector contracts address existing healthcare delivery problems. Value for money also remains to be evaluated properly.

Elective Colorectal Surgery Service Provision during SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

AbstractThe SARS-Cov-2 pandemic and its immediate public health impact has caused severe disruption of regular medical care provision. The morbimortality of other diseases continues to affect people regardless of the viral infection. Indeed, it would be reasonable to assume that they have been aggravated by the period of most restrictive public health measures that were adopted against the virus. Recovery and maintenance of healthcare provision is required despite the ongoing threat. Therefore, it is critical to resume services in a structured and safe way, otherwise greater harm could come to our patients and to ourselves. The present article proposes to be a broad guide to the recovery and maintenance of elective outpatient, surgical and lower endoscopic services, aiding the colorectal surgeon in identifying risks, assessing their multiple dimensions, and implementing risk management strategies in a pragmatic and efficacious way.

Safety of maintaining elective and emergency surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic with the introduction of a Protected Elective Surgical Unit (PESU): A cross-specialty evaluation of 30-day outcomes in 9,925 patients undergoing surgery in a University Health Board

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented health care challenges mandating surgical service reconfiguration. Within our hospital, emergency and elective streams were separated and self-contained Protected Elective Surgical Units were developed to mitigate against infection-related morbidity. Aims of this study were to determine the risk of COVID-19 transmission and mortality and whether the development of Protected Elective Surgical Units can result in significant reduction in risk. MethodsA retrospective observational study of consecutive patients from 18 specialties undergoing elective or emergency surgery under general, spinal, or epidural anaesthetic over a 12-month study period was undertaken. Primary outcome measures were 30-day postoperative COVID-19 transmission rate and mortality. Secondary adjusted analyses were performed to ascertain hospital and Protected Elective Surgical Unit transmission rates. ResultsBetween 15 March 2020 and 14 March 2021, 9,925 patients underwent surgery: 6,464 (65.1%) elective, 5,116 (51.5%) female, and median age 57 (39–70). A total of 69.5% of all procedures were performed in Protected Elective Surgical Units. Overall, 30-day postoperative COVID-19 transmission was 2.8% (3.4% emergency vs 1.2% elective P < .001). Protected Elective Surgical Unit postoperative transmission was significantly lower than non–Protected Elective Surgical Unit (0.42% vs 3.2% P < .001), with an adjusted likely in-hospital Protected Elective Surgical Unit transmission of 0.04%. The 30-day all-cause mortality was 1.7% and was 14.6% in COVID-19–positive patients. COVID-19 infection, age > 70, male sex, American Society of Anesthesiologists grade >2, and emergency surgery were all independently associated with mortality. ConclusionThis study has demonstrated that Protected Elective Surgical Units can facilitate high-volume elective surgical services throughout peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic while minimising viral transmission and mortality. However, mortality risk associated with perioperative COVID-19 infection remains high.

Innovative operating room scheduling metric for creating surgical lists with desirable room utilisation rates

One of the critical issues in healthcare management is the operating room (OR) scheduling problem. Solutions to this problem consider surgery durations and allocate elective surgeries to OR sessions in order to create surgical lists of high quality. Determining the quality of a surgical list is a key undertaking within OR scheduling and is the focus of this research. Currently, probability- and/or expectation-based measures of surgical lists are used instead of statistical distributions of surgery lists to measure quality. The use of multiple measures, e.g., a combination of expectation and probability to assess a surgical list, complicates OR scheduling, so we introduce a new single measure – the OR scheduling metric – for evaluating surgical lists before their realisations, i.e., for use within OR scheduling. We apply the OR scheduling metric to an actual elective dataset and use simulation to demonstrate its use, including customised scheduling rules. We recommend the adoption of a benchmarked OR scheduling metric by the elective surgical services in hospitals with expected practical benefits in the long run, i.e., simpler OR scheduling and more desirable room utilisation, to be similar to that observed in our simulations.

Strategies for recovery of a surgical service in the COVID-19 era.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a massive backlog of elective cases. Delays in the provision of "elective" surgical care have dire consequences for the patient: progression of disease and comorbidities, higher complication rates, and lower overall survival. Delays in elective surgery also have significant consequences for the health system: added emotional strain on healthcare workers, a reduction in training opportunities, increased costs, and increased inequality in health-service provision. As the virus is likely to become endemic, the recovery of surgical services from the initial shock of the first three waves needs to be carefully planned, in order to mitigate the further loss of elective surgical services. This article presents a narrative review of the latest international guidelines and recommendations pertaining to surgical recovery strategies in the COVID-19 pandemic. To begin with, any recovery plan should be led by a local governance committee, who need to design and implement a number of strategies across the three phases of recovery. The preparation phase includes deciding on a system of case prioritisation, assessing and organising resources, and planning innovative ways to reorganise the service itself. The perioperative phase involves putting measures in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The post discharge phase includes the implementation of telemedicine for follow-up, as well as methods of service audit to enable continuous adjustment and improvement. Surgical service recovery presents many challenges; however, these also present a unique opportunity to reassess and improve the efficiency of surgical care delivery.

TU4.9 Major elective colorectal surgery at a non-acute site: is it safe or not?

Abstract Introduction Recent reorganisation resulted in elective surgical services being separated from emergency facilities due to a new hospital site in our Health Board. Clinicians were initially concerned with regards to postoperative complications and the potential need for transfer to the acute site (6 miles away) for ongoing emergency management. There are no ICU or emergency theatre facilities at the cold site. We audited the first year of the service reconfiguration. Methods This study looked at unexpected transfer of major colorectal surgical patients occurring between December 2020 to 2021 from the elective hospital to the acute site. The prospectively maintained departmental database was interrogated. Results There were 263 patients undergoing colorectal operations over 12 months. 31 patients (12%) required step-up to the acute hospital for further post-operative care. 10 returned to theatre (4 anastomotic leaks, 1 anastomotic bleed, 1 fluid collection washout, 3 SBO, 1 stoma revision). The remaining 21 patients were managed conservatively by the surgical team (8) or taken over by the medical team (13). The main surgical reason for step-up was due to anastomotic leakage (7). Other step-up reasons included cardiorespiratory compromise (9), infection (6), bowel obstruction (3) and bleeding (2). Median time for transfer was day 4 (range 0–11 days) postoperatively. No transfer delay causing harm was reported. The 30-day mortality rate for all 263 patients was 0%. Conclusion Transfer to the acute site seems to have been safe, timely and effective in its first year. Patients have received appropriate and emergency care for these unpredictable complications.

Surgical training during the COVID-19 pandemic at a designated 'cold' site: are we meeting the challenge?

There has been a marked reduction in surgical operative training opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This may be improved by the establishment of 'cold' sites for NHS elective surgery. We investigated the training opportunities at a newly designated elective surgery cold site in the West Midlands, UK. An observational retrospective study was undertaken to include all gastrointestinal and urological elective surgery at a single 'cold' site during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient demographics, details of surgery and data relating to surgical training such as primary surgeon and portfolio index procedure were collected. Factors affecting the likelihood of trainees being the primary surgeon were analysed using logistic regression models. There were 880 patients, with a median (interquartile range) age of 62 (48-74). Some 658 (74.8%) procedures were defined as 'index procedures' for specialty training year 4 (ST4) level: 409/509 (80.4%) for urology, 155/235 (66%) for colorectal and 94/136 (69.1%) for upper gastrointestinal (GI). Only 253/880 (28.8%) procedures were performed by a trainee as the primary surgeon: 201/509 (39.4%) for urology, 21/235 (8.9%) for colorectal and 31/136 (22.8%) for upper GI. The likelihood of a trainee being the primary surgeon was reduced for major surgery (p<0.001) and for GI surgery when compared with urology (p<0.001). Surgical training was facilitated at an elective surgery 'cold' site during the COVID-19 pandemic, but at lower levels than anticipated. Type of surgery influenced trainee participation. Surgical training should be incorporated into 'cold' site elective surgical services if trainees are to be prepared for the future.

Assigning green hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic assure continuous and safe resumption of surgical services

BackgroundCoronavirus 19 pandemic impacted the health system with more pressure on the critical areas, leading to direct manpower working in the Operating Room to help treat this new problem by postponing elective surgical cases and affecting some urgent ones. However, elective surgical services start to recover by establishing one or more hospitals that deal with COVID-19 free patients (green hospital) in each area with a dedicated one to treat COVID19 cases. Our research shows if this model's application assures safe and continued recovery of surgical services to reach the level before the pandemic. This study aimed to explore if assigning a green hospital to assure safe and continuous resumption of surgical services during a pandemic. MethodsThis study used a multicenter, national, quasi-experimental, post-test-only control group design. All hospitals assigned at least one hospital as a green hospital (COVID-19 free hospital) in the northern areas of Saudi Arabia were included in the study. We also included Riyadh's large tertiary care hospital as a control none green hospital. We reported the number of surgical backlog in each city, the number of surgical cases performed, the percentage of OR utilization in each city and the percentage of COVID-19 cases to the number of ICU bed cases in each city. ResultsThis study included green hospitals in five cities in the northern area of Saudi Arabia. Besides, we included one none large green hospital in Riyadh city as a control group. The median of weekly procedures in green hospitals was 101 (99, 109.5) in Alqurayat, 233 (194, 237) in Tabuk, 180 (162, 199) in Haill, 108 (90, 120) in Al Jawf and 257 (155, 313) in Northern Borders. The median of weekly procedures in the control hospital was 245 (215, 259). Green hospitals contributed to reducing the surgical backlog by a median percentage of 74% (38, 108) in Alqurayat, 25% (21, 26) in Tabuk, 8% (7, 9) in Haill, 81% (54, 91) in Al Jawf and 78% (72, 88) in Northern Borders. While in the control hospital was 8% (8, 9). ConclusionImplementing elective surgeries in green hospitals contributes to a continuous resumption of surgical services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

P-BN57 The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on management of patients with acute uncomplicated gallstone pancreatitis

BackgroundCurrent British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines suggest that patients presenting with acute uncomplicated gallstone pancreatitis should ideally undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the index admission or within two weeks of discharge from hospital. COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the delivery of elective and semi-elective surgical services in the National Health Service (NHS) due to limited availability of theatre resources. The aim of this study was to evaluate compliance with the BSG guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the newly introduced `Hot’ lists at our centre.MethodsPatients admitted with first presentation of acute uncomplicated gallstone pancreatitis between 01/03/19 and 25/02/21 were identified from electronic records. Pregnancy and lack of fitness for surgery were the exclusion criteria. Patients admitted between 01/03/19 and 31/12/19 were defined as the pre-COVID cohort. Those admitted between 23/03/20 and 25/02/21 formed the COVID cohort and had access to urgent gallbladder lists. Baseline characteristics, choice of imaging and timing of laparoscopic cholecystectomy were compared between the two cohorts using STATA software. Continuous variables were compared with Mann Whitney test and categorical variables were compared with Pearson’s Chi-Squared test.Results53 patients were identified in the total cohort with 27 being hospitalised prior to COVID-19 outbreak and 26 presenting after the national lockdown. Baseline characteristics did not differ significantly between the two groups. Biliary imaging pathway was similar between the two cohorts and importantly there appeared to be no delays in radiological tests during the lockdown. The overall proportion of patients undergoing cholecystectomies remained similar between the two groups and percentage of patients having it during the index admission did not differ. However, patients undergoing cholecystectomy post discharge had a significantly shorter waiting time during the lockdown (p = 0.021) as they were prioritised on the ‘Hot lists’ created to meet the demands of reduced planned theatre service. ConclusionsDuring the 2020 COVID pandemic our service for patients with uncomplicated gallstone pancreatitis continued to be delivered. Despite clinical pressures, there were no notable delays in biliary imaging. The introduction of the urgent operating lists has significantly reduced the time to laparoscopic cholecystectomy following admission for patients with acute uncomplicated gallstone pancreatitis during this period.

P-EGS21 The impact of COVID-19 on operative difficulty and outcomes of laparoscopic cholecystectomy

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial delays to surgery among patients with symptomatic gallstones due to cessation of elective surgical procedures. As this exposed patients to a longer period of time during which complications from gallstones could develop, we hypothesised that the operative difficulty and complication rate of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) increased following the first wave of the pandemic.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study of patients receiving emergency or elective LC at a single NHS trust comprising three sites. We included patients undergoing surgery in the pre-pandemic period (July-September 2019) and after resumption of elective surgical services following the first wave of the pandemic (July-September 2020). We compared data on operative duration, length of hospital stay, complications (bile leak, bile duct injury and mortality) and need for subtotal cholecystectomy. Categorical data are reported as n(%) and were compared with Fisher’s exact test. Continuous data are reported as median with interquartile range and compared with Mann-Whitney U Test.Results220 patients were included; 106 in the pre-pandemic group and 114 in the pandemic group. There were no significant differences in median operative times between the pre-pandemic (91 (71-121 minutes) and post-first wave (86 (69-114) minutes) groups (p = 0.48). The proportion of prolonged operations (over two hours) was similar in the pre-pandemic and pandemic groups (50% versus 46%, respectively, p = 0.59). Median length of hospital stay was 0 days for both groups (pre-pandemic 0 (0-1) days; pandemic 0 (0-1) days, p = 0.42)). There were no significant differences in the rates of bile leak, bile duct injury, mortality, or the conversion to subtotal cholecystectomy.ConclusionsInterruption of elective surgery following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic did not result in a discernible change in the technical difficulty or complication rate of LC at our centre. Longer term studies are required to assess the effect of prolonged delays to surgery and the impact of subsequent waves of the pandemic.

Paging Patterns Are Different for Emergency vs Elective Surgical Services at Night

Paging Patterns Are Different for Emergency vs Elective Surgical Services at Night

Implementation of Clean Hospital Strategy and Prioritizing Covid-19 Prevention Factors Using Best-Worst Method

Many nations have suffered the catastrophe of COVID-19, and one of the first countries affected by the pandemic was Iran; all industries and individuals have been adversely affected by the pandemic. Health care systems and patients’ conditions, in particular, were disrupted due to canceling elective surgery. To put it more sharply, a delay in performing elective surgery may potentially impact patients’ survival and the quality of their lives. To cope with the new situation, in the first stage, the Clean Hospital strategy was proposed in order to minimize the effects of this pandemic on elective surgical services. The mentioned strategy is a try to provide a solution and resume elective surgeries in the pandemic period. In the second stage, panel discussion, Delphi method, and the best-worst method (BWM) were employed to prioritize the factors that inhibit Coronavirus transmission. The proposed strategy and the results of this study could be used by policymakers and health departments to resume elective surgeries and control the infection to maintain a hospital or a section of it clear. The overall result of the study showed that the most important Covid-19 prevention factors in Clean Hospitals were personal protection (w = 0.212), screening checklist (w = 0.182), and check body temperature (w = 0.126), respectively (C1 > C2 > C3). According to the financial, time, and human resource limitations, first, resources were allocated to higher priority criteria, and in order of priority, all items (C1, C2, …., C9) were used in the Clean hospital strategy.

445 Review of Restarting Elective Surgical Service in District General Hospital Post COVID 19

AimNational Health Service (NHS) has massively reduced non-urgent elective surgical service as COVID-19 hit the UK.This study aims to evaluate the measures taken by our trust to restart elective surgical work which was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodThis is a single centre, retrospective, observational study. We analysed records of the first 100 patients who underwent any type of elective General Surgical operative procedure since June 2020.ResultsOur cohort included 51 female, and 49 male patients. Youngest patient was 19 years old and the eldest was of 86 years with mean age of 55.5. In our group, 16 patients were ASA grade 1, 57 were ASA 2, 26 ASA 3 and 1 patient was ASA grade 4. The median ASA grade among our patient group was 2. In this study shortest hospital stay was of 1 day and longest of 53 days with average stay of 5.2 days and SD of 7.6. In our cohort, 18 patients developed Grade 2 Clavein-Dindo(CD) Complications,6 patients developed Grade 3 and none developed complications of CD Grade 4 or beyond. Repeat COVID-19 tests for all patients staying over 7 days were negative.ConclusionsIn conclusion, through appropriate isolation and with adhering to trust guidelines, restarting of elective surgery in non-covid free hospital compound via separate pathways are feasible and should be reflected upon before stopping all elective surgical services in the future considering the threat of further waves of covid-19 or the new variant of the virus looks very real.

Response to "Letter to the Editor": "Failure to Medically Optimize Before Total Hip Arthroplasty: Which Modifiable Risk Factor Is the Most Dangerous?"

The wide availability of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS Co-V2) vaccines, along with the concomitant decline in nationwide hospitalizations for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related illness, ushered in a near-return-to-normal pace of practice for many arthroplasty surgeons in the United States. Hospital system screening procedures have persisted which create a safer environment within which to deliver elective surgical services. In July 2020, the International Consensus Group along with the American Association for Hip and Knee Surgeons Research Committee created guidelines for resuming elective total joint arthroplasty [1].

UK Healthcare Workers' Experiences of Major System Change in Elective Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reflections on Rapid Service Adaptation.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted the delivery of elective surgery in the United Kingdom. The majority of planned surgery was cancelled or postponed in March 2020 for the duration of the first wave of the pandemic. We investigated the experiences of staff responsible for delivering rapid changes to surgical services during the first wave of the pandemic in the United Kingdom, with the aim of developing lessons for future major systems change (MSC). Using a rapid qualitative study design, we conducted 25 interviews with frontline surgical staff during the first wave of the pandemic. Framework analysis was used to organise and interpret findings. Staff discussed positive and negative experiences of rapid service organisation. Clinician-led decision-making, the flexibility of individual staff and teams, and the opportunity to innovate service design were all seen as positive contributors to success in service adaptation. The negative aspects of rapid change were inconsistent guidance from national government and medical bodies, top-down decisions about when to cancel and restart surgery, the challenges of delivering emergency surgical care safely and the complexity of prioritising surgical cases when services re-started. Success in the rapid reorganisation of elective surgical services can be attributed to the flexibility and adaptability of staff. However, there was an absence of involvement of staff in wider system-level pandemic decision-making and competing guidance from national bodies. Involving staff in decisions about the organisation and delivery of MSC is essential for the sustainability of change processes.

Safe Elective Surgical Practice During COVID-19 Pandemic - A Prospective Observational Study of 303 Elective Surgeries in the UK.

AimDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been worldwide cancellation of elective surgeries to protect patients from nosocomial viral transmission and peri-operative complications. With the unfolding situation, there is a definite need for an exit strategy to reinstate elective services. Therefore, more literature evidence supporting exit plans for elective surgical services is imperative to adopt a safe working principle. This study aims to provide evidence for safe elective surgical practice during the pandemic.MethodologyThis single centre, prospective, observational study included adult patients who were admitted and underwent elective surgical procedures in the trust’s COVID-free environment at the Birmingham Treatment Centre between May 19 and July 14, 2020. Data were collected on demographic parameters, peri-operative variables, surgical specialities, COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing results, post-operative complications and mortality. The study also highlighted the protocols it followed for the elective services during the pandemic.ResultsA total of 303 patients were included with mean age of 49.9 years (SD 16.5) comprising of 59% (178) female and 41% (125) male. They were classified according to the American Society of Anaesthesiologist Grade, different surgical specialities and types of anaesthesia used. Ninety-six percent (96%) of patients were discharged on the same day. Hundred percent (100%) compliance with pre-operative COVID-19 RT-PCR testing was maintained. There was no 30-day mortality or major respiratory complications.ConclusionCareful patient selection, simultaneous involvement of the pre-assessment and anaesthetic team, strict adherence to peri-operative protocols and delivering vigilant post-operative care for COVID-19 infection can help provide safe elective surgical services if the community transmission is under reasonable control. However, it is particularly important to maintain COVID-free safe environment for such procedures.