Cuttack: Normality returned to the SCB hospital with postgraduate doctors resuming work on Wednesday, nearly after 10 days of cease work.

Patient care had been badly affected as 450 postgraduate doctors usually shouldered bulk of the patient care went on a strike. Besides, the situation had worsened with nearly 200 senior resident doctors going on mass leave on Saturday and another 150 house surgeons boycotting hospital duty on Monday supporting the agitation.

The postgraduate doctors' union alleged that urology department head Datteswar Hota had been mentally harassing and abusing the department students while forcing them to work for long in the hospital and then at his nursing home.

The union expected the state government to take action after the report of the enquiry committee into the allegations had been sent to it.

Union general secretary Dr Phanindra Kumar Swain said: "We decided to call off our strike as the government acted on our demand, belatedly though and joined duty at 5pm."

The government order stated that Dr Hota was transferred and posted to the MKCG until further orders.

The committee said the allegations regarding the working hours and duty pattern of the urology department's postgraduate doctors "are unfounded as they are allowed adequate time between 8am-10pm work schedule pattern."

In another development, junior doctors at MKCG ended their "solidarity cease work" on Wednesday following the transfer of Dr Hota.

"We had resorted to cease work since Monday and sat on a dharna in front of the college building in solidarity with the SCB counterparts. But we ended our cease work on Wednesday morning in consultation with the SCB counterparts," said junior doctors' association secretary Dr Pritish Sabyasachi Mohanty.

"The state government has fulfilled our demand by transferring Dr Hota from the SCB," said Dr Mohanty.

Additional reporting by Sunil Patnaik in Berhampur