Calcutta, Aug. 23 :     Calcutta's 310th birthday finds the city's oldest and largest hospital gasping. About 170 interns, house staff and post-graduate trainees at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital continued to abstain from work on Wednesday, leaving patients in the lurch. Only a handful of admissions took place in the emergency ward on Wednesday, according to a resident medical officer. Those already admitted to the hospital before the strike started, waited anxiously for doctors to resume their rounds and things to return to normal. The hospital staff struck work on Tuesday afternoon after some of them had been assaulted by a mob, following the death of an accident victim. The 15-point charter of demands that the protesters have placed before the hospital authorities after the incident remains unfulfilled and the general body of trainee doctors has decided to continue the agitation till Thursday noon, when another meeting will be held with hospital superintendent S. Sinha. The ward and other departments of the hospital are being manned by resident medical officers and medical officers. A few visiting surgeons made the rounds on Wednesday morning. The authorities have not sought the help of state health service doctors 'from outside', yet. Patients already admitted in the various wards had a trying time, as no treatment was forthcoming. Only one or two emergency operations were conducted by some senior doctors. The outpatient departments of all disciplines, including the eye infirmary, were kept open, but the number of cases attended to was far less than on other days. Of the 15 demands, the general body of trainee doctors has sought the immediate fulfilment of four: re-establishment of a police post opposite the emergency block, debarring patients' relatives and friends from the wards outside visiting hours; curtailment of 'floor admissions', and the filing of an FIR against those involved in Tuesday's attack. 'We were told that an FIR has been lodged at Bowbazar police station, but we weren't given any case number,' said spokesman S. Biswas, a post-graduate trainee doctor. 'There is no supply of Betadine, spirit, gauze and even dressing trays in all departments. Worse, without a generator, we have had to work with torches and candles on two occasions in the recent past. There was a power cut for almost 24 hours in one of the OTs as well,' Biswas complained. 'We don't have running water in the OT taps after 9 pm every day and are forced to wash with stored water. We don't have spirit to clean the patient before administering injections, and we don't have a proper biochemistry, pathology or radiology department that is open round the clock. How can we ensure proper treatment of the patients in these primitive conditions?' demanded a doctor.