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At least 100,000 people visiting the outpatient departments of the hospitals were deprived of treatment.
The hospitals were deserted even though the PMS Association decided to run emergency services and conduct post-mortems.
In Lucknow, patients coming from neighbouring areas had a tough time languishing under trees inside the hospital premises. The doctors attended only to serious cases.
"We were discriminated in the implementation of the Tikkoo Commission report, which was accepted in case of teaching doctors. When the one-man Bajaj Committee recommended enhancement in our non-practising allowance, even that was denied to us," PMS association president Dr D R Singh said.
According to him, the non-practising allowance admissible to PMS doctors was Rs 900 as against the Bajaj Committee's recommendation for 25 per cent of the basic pay. "This has been formally passed by the state cabinet as well, but still the bureaucracy is sitting over it," he said.
"What is worse is that there are nearly 8,000 doctors who have not got a single promotion ever since they joined the class II cadre more than two decades ago," he lamented.
"We have yet to come across any other state where doctors appointed way back in 1974 are still in the class II cadre," said Singh. "Even those joining as clerks in the secretariat must be better off than doctors..."
The association also gave an ultimatum to the state government. "We will proceed on yet another day's mass casual leave on October 18 in pursuance of our demands. On that day we will not even attend to emergencies, only post-mortems would be carried out," Singh declared.
"And if our voice still goes unheard, we will have no option but to intensify our agitation with effect from October 25, when we propose to take out a protest march in Lucknow," he added.
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