After Delhi and Mumbai, medical students in Bhubaneswar have joined the agitation against reservations.
Functioning of three government-run medical college hospitals was on standstill after house surgeons and junior doctors struck work.
Claiming that the agitation had been a success, coordinator of the Orissa Medical Students' Association (OMSA) Brahmadatta Patnaik said that the students would soon launch a hunger strike in support of their movement against the introduction of the quota.
At the SCB medical college hospital at Cuttack, services were adversely hit following the strike as the casualty department had to be closed down while the number of patients visiting the out-patient department (OPD) was reduced by about half.
The agitation had also hit services at the MKCG medical college hospital at Berhampur and VSS medical college hospital at Burla.
Professors and lecturers in the medical college attended to the patients at the OPD and in the different wards while no emergency surgery was performed during the day, hospital sources said.