Patna: Alamganj resident Pushpa Devi kept pleading with nurses to call a doctor as her three-month old baby developed breathing problems, but nobody turned up at the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital's (NMCH's) emergency wing. Junior doctors had struck work after a patient's attendant allegedly manhandled them on Sunday night.

Ravi Kumar (35), an accident victim, lay unattended on a stretcher outside the emergency wing . His relatives later took him to a private hospital.

The junior doctor's strike at NMCH paralysed outdoor, indoor and emergency services at the hospital on Monday. Some senior doctors chose to work but disappeared when they saw junior doctors creating disturbance, vandalising the registration counter of the outpatient department and other parts of the hospital.

The situation went out of control when security guards started wielding sticks on junior doctors in front of the superintendent, deputy superintendent and the principal around 8.15am.

The junior doctors had gone on an indefinite strike on Sunday night after a patient's attendant allegedly manhandled them. According to junior doctors, three of the four people who manhandled junior doctor Rahul Shekhar and senior resident Ravi Raman were drunk.

The junior doctors said the diarrhoea patient's attendant forced doctors to conduct an ultrasound and other diagnostic tests at night even after the doctors told them the tests were not required. "The doctors said that even if the tests were required, those could be conducted in the morning, as the ultrasound technician leaves by 2pm," said Ravi Ranjan Kumar Raman, president of the junior doctors' association (JDA) at NMCH. "But the attendants started misbehaving with them and then assaulting them. When we complained to the superintendent and deputy superintendent about the lackadaisical approach of the security staff, the security people, around 25 in number, started wielding sticks on us. You can check the CCTV footage. We have demanded principal secretary, health, to lodge an FIR against the attendants under the Bihar Medical Service Institution and Person Protection Act. We are also asking him to suspend Alamganj police station assistant sub-inspector Ramkant Ram, who let off the attendants, and the NMCH superintendent's resignation for instigating hospital guards to beat us. If our demands are not met, we will continue our strike."

The JDA of PMCH said they, too, will go on strike if their counterparts' demands are not met.

Till the filling of this report (8.30pm), the junior doctors' strike was on at NMCH.

The junior doctors met principal secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar in the evening where they were assured he would look into their demands. The junior doctors later convened a meeting of their association to take a further call on the issue.