Junior doctors at SSKM Hospital and Medical College and Hospital called off their ceasework on Wednesday night after the government assured them of an “appreciable hike” in their stipend from September 1.

More than 800 doctors of the two state-run hospitals, where the services were crippled for three days since Monday, promised to resume emergency duty from Wednesday night and normal work from Thursday morning.

The doctors had struck work to press for a hike in their stipend. The decision to withdraw the ceasework followed a recommendation of a three-member government panel to raise the stipend by more than 50 per cent.

The panel comprises Pradip Kumar Mitra (the director of the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research), Vakil Ahmed (special secretary, medical education) and Prabir Dasgupta (joint director, medical education).

“We cannot reveal the exact quantum of hike we have recommended. But we kept in mind the stipends in other states, a Supreme Court directive and the demand of the junior doctors while making our recommendation. We proposed a more than 50 per cent hike,” said Mitra.

Before the announcement, the committee held a five-hour meeting with the director of medical education, S.N. Banerjee, at Swastha Bhavan in Salt Lake.

“We will take into consideration the committee’s suggestion and implement an appreciable hike from September 1. This is a word of honour. After this, the doctors should call off the ceasework,” said Banerjee.

More than 500 junior doctors, who were waiting outside Swasthya Bhavan, did not oblige him immediately. They took more than two hours to announce resumption of normality.

“We are happy with the announcement. Though we haven’t yet been told about the exact quantum of hike, we have decided to call off our ceasework based on the government’s assurance,” said Abhik Ghosh, a junior doctor at Medical College.

“Our movement was apolitical and the demand was legitimate. And we have achieved a moral victory within three days,” added Ghosh.

But the doctors refused to comment on the price of the victory. As they went on strike, the services in the two hospitals — in the OPDs, emergency departments and the wards — were crippled.

The protesting doctors ran parallel OPDs but they failed to treat the majority of the patients who had turned up at the two hospitals.

“A large number of patients were denied treatment and had to be referred to other hospitals,” said a senior doctor at SSKM.

The government could have invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act to break the strike but did not opt for it. “We did not want any confrontation with them and wanted to sort out the issue through talks,” said health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra Mishra.

Patients be damned.