A report from Fiji says ten patients died at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva during the doctors' work to rule protest this month.
The Fiji Sun quotes hospital sources as saying they could have been saved if the doctors had been on call.
The sources say the ten patients who were admitted in the medical and surgical wards were scheduled to undergo surgery but were denied this because of the doctors' protest.
The consultant surgeon at the hospital, Dr Sitiveni Vudiniabola, has confirmed that very sick patients booked for surgery during the work to rule were not operated on.
But he says he cannot say if the deaths were due to the doctors' absence during that period.
Another member of the hospital staff is quoted as saying they were aware of the deaths but could not report them because of the sensitivity of the issue.
