The hospitals, however, managed to carry on some work with ad hoc staff. Emergency operation theatres functioned in most hospitals. A medical officer at Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital said that surgeries scheduled for tomorrow would also be affected.

In Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital, x-rays were taken by medical students. A few striking workers volunteered to attend emergency operations. Veerender Davas, an operation theatre assistant in the emergency OT and the vice-president of the hospital's workers union, said he would be reporting for his scheduled night shift, though the strike is to end only on Tuesday. Dr Mukta, a paediatrician in LNJP, said that the casual staff and nurses were doubling in as OT assistants.

In Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital, the Out Patient Department (OPD) opened late and new patients had to turn back as there was no one to register them. Friends and relatives of patients moved severely ill patients to the wards and carried essential materials to the OTs.

The strikers, who include safai karmacharis, laboratory and OT technicians and assistants, say the government has not honoured the agreement they signed on July 28. As per the agreement, they say they were to be paid patient care allowance of Rs 700 and a panel was to look into their other demands.