Conflicts of interest: the authors declare they have no conflicts of interest. The members of the Surgical Priority Setting Partnership Steering Group (in alphabetical order) are: Dr Rachel Abbott, Dr Jonathan Batchelor, Stuart Belshaw, Dr Kash Bhatti, Dr John Bladen, Dr Alistair Brown, Diane Cannon, Eric Deeson, Eric Dooher, Nigel Dunford, Dr Eleanor Earp, Patricia Fairbrother, Dr Claudia Giovanni, Douglas Grindlay, Matthew Helbert, John Holmes, Jackie Kervick, Suzannah Kinsella, Maggie Mcphee, Ms Carrie Newlands, Ms Viktorija Petraitiene, Mr Jonathan Pollock, Dr Angelika Razzaque, Dr Agata Rembielak, Mr Jonathan Rodrigues, Mr David Snow, Diane Thompson, Ayath Ullah, Dr David Veitch, Dr Aaron Wernham, Carrie Wingfield and Dr Stela Ziaj.