The Democratic Alliance (DA) blamed the government for the doctors' pickets in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape on Monday.

"The strike by doctors in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape today is the almost inevitable result of the shameful lack of respect that this government has shown towards doctors over the past few years," said the opposition party's "shadow cabinet minister" on health, Mike Waters.

He said the government had been relying on the good will and the compassion of doctors, and legal prohibitions on doctors' strikes to prevent protest action.

The party did not condone what the doctors were doing, but sympathised with the them, and urged the government to rather speed up work on how it can pay its doctors properly, instead of the implementation of National Health Insurance.

Public sector doctors in Durban picketed outside the city's King Edward VIII hospital and vowed to continue throughout the week until their demands were met.

Their issue revolves around delays in implementing an Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) intended to increase their salaries to make up for their heavy workloads at public hospitals and hopefully to staunch an outflow to the private sector.

"This is not about us only, it's also about the people of South Africa who depend on the public health sector to save them," said Lebogang Phahladria, president of the South African Registrars Association (Sara), an affiliate of the South African Medical Association, at the Durban picket.

Eastern Cape Health Department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said that so far, only the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha was affected by pickets, but key units were open and running.

"We are fully functional," said Kupelo, saying private sector doctors who did sessions for Eastern Cape hospitals were available if necessary.

They also have a helicopter on standby.

Phophi Ramathuba, a Sama negotiator in the sector's bargaining council, said she had been told that the government had resolved its problem of not being able to match a head count with the number of people on their payroll.

This provided a ray of hope for Wednesday's meeting, whether the bargaining parties are due for their next meeting.

"I can't wait to see Wednesday so that we can resolve this."

Earlier she said that an accurate head count was not available, threatening delays as this is necessary for the cost estimates and projections that the Treasury will have to consider.

"They said they have done their head count," she said.

Medical officers, medical specialists, dentists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and emergency workers were to have seen the increases by July 1 last year.

Ramathuba warned earlier that the ongoing delays are frustrating doctors who belong to Sama, which also acts as a Congress of South African Trade Unions-affiliated union.

Sama does not condone or condemn the pickets, and this has led to protests by affiliates, such as the one arranged by registrars on Monday.

Spokespeople available in Western Cape and North West said they were not affected by Monday's pickets and DA Gauteng health spokesperson Jack Bloom said hospitals in the province appeared to be unaffected.

The Health Department was not immediately available for comment.