OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic created a modern time healthcare services crisis in emerging markets. This research aimed to evaluate the pandemic's effects on emergency surgeries, medical consultations, maternal care, primary health care services, and surgical interventions between 2019-2021. The study emphasizes the challenges and responses in these regions, highlighting the differences in healthcare accessibility and resilience during the pandemic.

METHODS: The study includes a literature review of academic articles, health reports, government data, focusing the pandemic's effect on healthcare access. Data were gathered from official health records in Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Egypt, Poland, Qatar, Sub-Saharan Africa, Türkiye and Thailand. The analysis focused on emergency surgeries, outpatient visits, hospital admissions, primary healthcare, prenatal and maternal care, Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED) clinic visits and general surgeries, with aim to understand how healthcare Access changed during and after the pandemic in these fast-growing economies.

RESULTS: Ethiopia's emergency surgeries lowered 77%, while in Egypt 66.4% reduction in chest clinic patients. Sub-Saharan Africa's outpatient and hospital admissions dropped 7-17%. In China, hospital, primary care, and inpatient visits lowered 33%, 71%, and 42% respectively. Qatar's physical healthcare visits dropped 36%, but virtual consultations increased notably. Poland's CIED visits dropped 26% in 2020. Thailand deal with increased cases and deaths in 2021, while Brazil's healthcare services, including screenings (42.6%) and surgeries (59.7%), significantly reduced. In Türkiye 35.15% drop in hospital visits and 14.78% prescriptions, with increased costs per visit (0.09%) and per prescription (42.27%).

CONCLUSIONS: This study shows the deep effect of COVID-19 on healthcare in emerging markets, revealing interruptions in services like surgeries. The pandemic showed the need for resilient, flexible healthcare systems and expedite the transition to digital health services. These findings emphasize the importance of improving healthcare in emerging markets, make ready for future global health challenges.