Junior doctors of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) called off their strike on Friday evening.
The decision was taken after the state assured them that sections of Bihar Medical Service Institution and Person Protection Act, 2011, would be imposed against people attacking medical institutions or doctors.
Sources said though the Bihar Medical Service Institution and Person Protection Act (gives legal protection to doctors for vandalism against them) was in force since 2011, it was not imposed properly. The act has norms for imprisonment up to three years and fine up to Rs 50,000 on violators.
Sources said their other demands on beefing up the security cover at PMCH and other medical college and hospital were also considered.
Regarding junior doctors' demand of suspending PMCH principal S.N. Sinha, the government promised to form a committee to look into the issue.
Around 600 members of Junior Doctors' Association (JDA) went into strike on Sunday night after a 100-strong mob, which included a patient's attendants, entered the hospital around 7.45pm and manhandled junior doctors.
A few senior doctors had to lock themselves up in an operation theatre to shield against the mob. The cops caned junior doctors for catching hold of some of the attackers. Agitated, the JDA members struck work the same night, paralysing services at the hospital.
However, junior doctors at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital, Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, who joined the strike to show solidarity with the PMCH's junior doctors, had rejoined work on Thursday. At DMCH, a few junior doctors had rejoined work on Thursday.
On security measures the state promised, a JDA member of PMCH said: "We have been told that the force deployed yesterday (Thursday), would be stationed here (at PMCH) on a permanent basis. Number of closed-circuit television cameras would be increased in hospitals."
Earlier in the day, a division bench of Patna High Court had directed both the state and the advocate appearing on behalf of the JDA to file separate affidavits with regard to the strike by junior doctors in the state's medical colleges.
The court also directed the government to file an affidavit stating as to what arrangements the state had taken for the doctors' security.
