Assessment of health system resilience Protocol for a scoping review

Many health systems have been severely strained by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that has affected hudreds of millions of people and caused millions of deaths across the world. Only resilient health systems are at a position to ensure the well-being of beneficiaries even under stressful conditions. Good health is key to human happiness and well-being, and essential to sustainable development. Healthy populations can reach their full potential, produce and save more, generating wealth for themselves and contributing significantly to the progress and prosperity of their communities. Building health system resilience is thus crucial and should be considered in the efforts to strengthen health systems. Assessing the resilience of a health system may enable key stakeholders to identify weak points and take necessary actions. However, there is so far no common understanding of health system resilience and how it should be assessed. The general objective of this scoping review is to examine how health system resilience can be assessed. More specifically, we will (i) identify the various approaches used or proposed for assessing health system resilience, (ii) describe the conceptual basis supporting these approaches, (iii) summarise their strengths and limitations, and (iv) discuss challenges in the assessment of health system resilience.