Health systems resilience: is it time to revisit resilience after COVID-19?

The concept of health system resilience has been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even well-established health systems, considered resilient, collapsed during the pandemic. To revisit the concept of resilience two years and a half after the initial impact of COVID-19, we conducted a qualitative study with 26 international experts in health systems to explore their views on concepts, stages, analytical frameworks, and implementation from a comparative perspective of high-and low-and-middle-income countries (HICs and LMICs). The interview guide was informed by a comprehensive literature review, and all interviewees had practice and academic expertise in some of the largest health systems in the world. Results show that the pandemic did modify experts' views on various aspects of health system resilience, which we summarize and propose as refinements to the current understanding of health systems resilience.

Automated summary

The concept of health system resilience has been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, and even resilient health systems collapsed during this crisis. A qualitative study with 26 international experts was conducted to revisit the concept of resilience and explore their views on various aspects of health system resilience in high-income countries and low-and-middle-income countries. The study findings suggest that the pandemic has modified experts' perspectives on health system resilience and propose refinements to the current understanding.