Patient services continued to be hit at private hospitals across the city for the second day in a row on Tuesday as doctors stayed away from non-emergency work.

Officials at the hospitals said services are likely to be normal from Wednesday.

OPD footfall was lower than usual and many planned surgeries and other procedures were cancelled across hospitals.

Two associations of senior doctors — Healthcare Professionals of Private Hospitals and Federation of Medical Associations — had called for partial cease-work (withdrawal from non-emergency services) from 6am on Monday to 6am on Wednesday across private and government hospitals.

The associations are demanding that the government accede to the demands of the junior doctors, who have been protesting since one of their colleagues was raped and killed at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

Senior officials at private hospitals said the doctors had not informed them about any plan to extend their partial cease-work beyond 6am Wednesday.

"Since we have not heard of any such plan, we think normal services will resume on Wednesday. We hope the OPD clinics at most hospitals will open tomorrow," said the CEO of a private hospital.

At Belle Vue Clinic, not a single patient came to the OPD on Tuesday. "We had informed those with prior bookings that doctors would not be doing OPD duties on Monday and Tuesday. No patient turned up for OPD consultation yesterday and today," said Pradip Tondon, the CEO of Belle Vue.

On Tuesday, 18 planned surgeries were cancelled at Belle Vue.

"Fifty-eight planned surgeries were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday. We rescheduled some of the surgeries to Wednesday but some patients refused to be operated on tomorrow because of Lakshmi Puja," said Tondon.

Most of the cancelled surgeries will be done between Thursday and Saturday, he said.

At the RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, about 450 people were treated in the OPD clinics on Tuesday, much lower than the usual daily turnout of 1,100.

"We performed 17 surgeries and about 30 cath lab procedures today," said an official at the hospital.

At Woodlands Hospital, only 30 people came to the OPD on Tuesday, compared with the average daily footfall of 350.

"The turnout was very low. Those who had prior appointments were informed that the doctors would not provide OPD consultation on Tuesday," said Rupak Barua, the chief executive officer and managing director of Woodlands Hospital.

"We already have 250 appointments for Wednesday. We think the number will go up to around 400 because a lot of people who could not get consultation on Monday and Tuesday will come on Wednesday," said Barua.

Six surgeries were performed at the hospital on Tuesday, much less than the average daily count.

Peerless Hospital saw a rise in the OPD footfall on Tuesday compared with Monday. "We treated 176 patients on Tuesday," said Sudipta Mitra, the chief executive officer of Peerless.

On Monday, 92 patients had OPD consultation at Peerless. The OPD clinics of the hospital will remain closed on Wednesday because of Lakshmi Puja.

An official at Medical College Kolkata said the patient turnout was lower than usual but most doctors examined patients in the OPD clinics.