Strategies for waiting list management and access prioritisation for elective surgery in public health systems: a scoping review protocol

Introduction Elective surgery waiting lists remain a persistent challenge in public health systems, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although strategies such as prioritisation criteria, centralised intake, pooled waiting lists, governance mechanisms and scheduling reforms have been implemented internationally, evidence remains fragmented. It often provides limited information on implementation requirements, sustainability, equity and transferability across health-system contexts. This scoping review aims to map and synthesise evidence on strategies for elective-surgery access management in public health systems, focusing on implementation determinants and contextual factors relevant to transferability. Methods and analysis The scoping review will follow the Arksey and O’Malley framework, incorporating current Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidance, and will be reported according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). MEDLINE (via PubMed), Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, CENTRAL and LILACS/BVS will be searched without language or publication-date restrictions, alongside prespecified grey-literature sources and citation tracking. Eligible evidence will include primary studies and secondary policy, technical and grey-literature sources addressing elective-surgery access management. Two reviewers will independently perform study selection, data charting, critical appraisal using design-appropriate JBI tools and evidence synthesis. Findings will be synthesised narratively using the Population–Concept–Context framework and stratified by health-system characteristics, surgical specialty, strategy type, implementation level and evidence-source type. Implementation-related findings will be coded using prespecified Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research domains and constructs. Studies conducted outside predefined public health-system contexts will undergo a structured transferability assessment covering financing and governance, referral and waiting-list organisation, regulation and accountability, workforce, infrastructure and service capacity, and information systems. Stakeholder consultation will provide perspectives on applicability, feasibility and transferability without altering eligibility, extracted data, or evidence synthesis. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval is not applicable since no original data will be collected. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, conference presentations and policy-relevant knowledge translation activities.