Guru Govind Singh hospital wears a deserted look, in Patna City on Monday. Picture by Sachin

Patna, Sept. 5: Doctors of Guru Govind Singh Hospital in Patna City went on a daylong strike today, demanding the arrest of the nine sanitation workers who thrashed the superintendent of the health hub three days ago.

Dr Vijay Kumar Sinha, the superintendent of the hospital, who was allegedly attacked by a group of workers led by local ward councillor Balaram Choudhary three days ago, said all six doctors at the hospital, who are in non-emergency services, abstained from work today to protest against the incident.

“Our demand is that all the nine accused in the case, including the prime accused (Chaudhary) be arrested immediately or else the health services at the hospital will remain paralysed,” Sinha said.

The decision to go on strike was taken by the doctors after the local wing of Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA), a union of government doctors in the state, passed a resolution to this effect on Sunday.

Sinha said it was now up to BHSA to decide the future course of action.

“As the accused in the case have not been arrested yet, we will meet tomorrow morning to take a decision on the future course of action,” he added.

On Friday, Sinha was manhandled and thrashed by a group of hospital sanitation workers, who alleged that he was deliberately delaying the payment of workers for the past nine months. They also accused him of indulging in corruption and caste-based bias towards them and ransacked a large part of the hospital.

Sinha, on the other hand, refuted the allegations saying the slur was baseless. “We have been paying the sanitation contractor and if the workers have not received their payments it is his fault. We are also demanding that the contractor, who is absconding, be arrested,” he said. The strike, meanwhile, caused a lot of problems for hundreds of patients who came to the hospital.

“I had brought my daughter here for treatment as she is suffering from high fever and diarrhoea. But I am having to rush to Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, as there is no doctor in the outpatient department,” Shantanu Sharma, a trader, told The Telegraph.

Many other patients had to move to other hospitals for treatment after learning about the strike by the doctors at Guru Govind Singh Hospital.

A woman, who suffered injuries after falling off the stairs at her home, had to rush to another hospital.

“I came here with my husband for treatment but learnt that the doctors are on strike. Now, I will have to go to another hospital. I am already in a lot of pain and am finding it very difficult to move. Such strike adds to my trauma,” she said. The doctors on strike, meanwhile, meanwhile, said the emergency services at the health centre were running smoothly and not many outpatient department patients had to suffer as the news of the proposed strike had spread yesterday itself.