Calcutta, Aug. 2: Services at the two biggest government hospitals in the state will be severely hit as junior doctors go on an indefinite ceasework from Monday demanding a raise in their stipend.

The strike, called by the junior doctors of the SSKM Hospital and the Medical College and Hospital, could spread to other state hospitals too.

Today, junior doctors of the two hospitals met on the Medical College and Hospital campus where the decision to go on strike was taken.

The junior doctors — they include interns, house staff and the postgraduate as well as postdoctoral trainees — number around 800 in these two institutes.

“We are helpless. We did not want this. Despite our repeated requests, the state did nothing to raise our stipend that is ridiculously low, even in comparison with Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. We will not work till the government gives us a raise,” said Ashutosh Mukherjee, a postgraduate trainee at SSKM.

“In Jharkhand, a post- graduate trainee gets around Rs 15,000 and we get Rs 8,250,” said Pradipta Guha, a post-graduate trainee at Medical College.

Services in the OPD, emergency sections, wards and operation theatres would be hit as junior doctors man these departments.

Dibeyendu Das, an intern at the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, said junior doctors there supported the ceasework. “We will hold a meeting on Monday and decide whether to join the agitation,” he said.

The Indian Medical Association’s Calcutta chapter also supports the strike. “The stipend for the junior doctors here is ridiculous. The agitation is justified,” said P.K. Nimani, its vice-president.

But the medical association’s Bengal chapter criticised the strike. “We admit that the stipend should be hiked. But the health department has taken concrete steps. So, this cease work cannot be supported,” said Amitabha Bhattacharya, the secretary of the IMA’s Bengal chapter.

The government has termed the ceasework “unjust”.

S.N. Banerjee, the director of medical education, said: “We have already set up a three-member committee to review the stipend structure, which will give us its recommendations. From September, the stipend would be raised. We have conveyed this to all hospitals.” But the junior doctors denied the claim.

Anup Roy, superintendent of the Medical College and Hospital said: “We are trying to cushion the impact (of the strike) by banking more on senior doctors and medical officers.”