The effect of COVID-19 on surgical training.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on society, healthcare in general and also on training in surgery. Cancellation of elective procedures, redeployment and establishment of green sites have combined with other factors to create significant gaps in training experience in operative and all other areas of surgery. There are nearly a million cases which have been lost to training since March 2020 and recovery means that tens of thousands of extra training cases have to be performed every month to recover that experience.