OBJECTIVES : To identify and analyse trends on emerging literature on the indirect health economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on English hospitals.

METHODS : A scoping review based upon searches in Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Search concepts included “COVID-19” AND “hospital outcomes of health economic consequence” AND “England” AND “indirect” with searches conducted during 8/5/2021 and 9/5/2021. Literature was screened for relevance. Standard bibliographical information, NHS region, sample size, patient population, data source, Covid-19 time periods (pre and during pandemic), and nature of health economic consequence and direction was abstracted. Narrative synthesis as described by Popay et al. (2006) was used to collate, summarise and report findings consistent with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist (Tricco et al. 2018).

RESULTS : 502 records were identified for screening with 20 articles included. Seventeen articles reported a decrease in admissions, six of ten articles reported a fall in length of stay, four in ten an increase in length of stay. Four of twelve articles reported an increase in mortality, with eight finding similar rates of mortality pre versus during the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS : Understanding the impact of the pandemic on hospital activity as well as the impact on patients is an active area of research. Hospital admissions fell, but the impact on length of stay and inpatient mortality is mixed. Stricter admission policies and hospital avoidance by patients may have driven changes. Interpretation of findings is challenging; lower use of hospitals may reflect unmet health needs that could lead to increased healthcare utilisation in the future. Further research is required in larger nationally representative samples, longer time periods and in other settings to identify the health economic consequences of the pandemic.