With the surge of infections and the increasing number of COVID-19 patients scaling-up hospital capacity is on the agenda again. During the first wave of the pandemic, approaches to maintaining regular hospital services in different countries have focused on the prioritization of different procedures and how to manage the separation of COVID-19 and routine patients. Such decisions have been made at the central or local level and different ways of consulting with the medical community have been employed. This webinar focuses on discussing how countries balanced expansion capacity and regular services during the first wave and what can be learned from this for the current situation.