Cuttack, June 27: Patient care has gone for a toss at SCB Medical College and Hospital here with junior doctors refusing to join work for the third consecutive day today.

About 462 postgraduate students and 150 house surgeons of SCB have launched a ceasework since Tuesday alleging “inefficiency of the authorities” in resolving a dispute with working journalists.

As a result, medical services at the casualty, neuro-surgery, surgery and other major wings, including the outdoor department, have been adversely affected.

“A relative of mine was injured in a road accident near Barang and we brought him to SCB. However, three nurses and a medical officer started his treatment in the casualty ward only after we waited for 30 minutes,” said Sidharth Swain, an patient’s attendant.

Friends and relatives of the patients criticised the ceasework by junior doctors.

On June 15, a group of postgraduate medical students had allegedly assaulted two journalists of a regional television channel on the medical college campus. One of the scribes had filed a complaint with police against four students. Subsequently, a student, Nihar Parida, was arrested and later released on bail.

“We are demanding justice for our colleague who was earlier manhandled by a reporter of a TV news channel in the ward on June 13,” said the core member of the Postgraduate Students’ Association, Sailendra Narayan Parida.