Patients at NRS Medical College and Hospital had a tough time on Thursday as junior doctors stayed off indoor wards and the OPD while staging a sit-in following an "assault" on their colleagues.

The agitating doctors alleged that a couple of doctors had been thrashed by relatives of a patient around 6am. Five men have been arrested in this connection.

Apart from better security, the doctors demanded that the authorities enforce the rule that not more than two people could accompany a patient into the emergency ward.

The demonstration, which started at 10am, was withdrawn at 8.30pm after the authorities assured the doctors that their demands would be met.

At least 600 junior doctors worked only in the emergency wards of various departments throughout the day.

The absence of junior doctors in indoor wards meant delayed admission and discharge, a hospital official said. These doctors maintain medical records of patients and supervise treatment, he said.

Principal Debashis Bhattacharya denied that patients had to suffer because of the agitation. He claimed that only interns, house staff and postgraduate trainees who were not on duty had joined the protest.

Police said an argument between doctors and people accompanying Sudarshan Biswas, 20, who had suffered injuries in a motorcycle accident, snowballed into a scuffle.

"First, the patient's relatives attacked the doctors. Later, boys from the hostel on the campus turned up and the fight took an ugly turn," said an officer of Entally police station, which has an outpost on the hospital premises.

Biswas of Beleghata had been brought in early on Thursday.

Five men were arrested following an FIR lodged by the doctors.

Relatives of Biswas have lodged a counter complaint, accusing doctors of assaulting them.

A doctor on the house staff said people accompanying Biswas accused the attending doctors of delaying in getting a CT scan done.

"They threatened that 50 men from their Beleghata neighbourhood would come and assault us," he said. "Around 6am, when they attacked us, the CT scan had been done and the report was normal. Two of us were attending to an injury on the patient's leg in the emergency ward when they pounced on us."

Another doctor alleged that a lone policeman present on the spot did nothing to pacify the mob.

"Had the rule barring the entry of more than two people with a patient been implement, the assault would not have occurred," an intern said.

Dhrubojyoti De, deputy commissioner of police (eastern suburban division), held a meeting with the agitating doctors and the hospital authorities.

He said the rule regarding the number of people who can enter the emergency ward should be properly displayed.

"In the absence of proper signage, when our men try to stop people from entering the emergency, a confrontation starts even before treatment can begin. People refuse to believe that such rules exist."

De stressed the need for better coordination between hospital guards and cops.

Principal Bhattacharya said "notices about the two persons-per-patient rule" would be put up at various places in the hospital within 48 hours.

On January 10, an intern of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Abhishek Jha, had to be hospitalised following an assault by people accompanying a patient.