The Supreme Court on Monday noted that the counsel for Bengal’s junior doctors had “categorically stated” that the medics had resumed “essential services” that included “IPD and OPD”.

IPD refers to indoor patient services, that is, providing treatment to those admitted to the wards of a hospital. OPD stands for outpatient department — clinics held from Monday to Saturday at state-run medical colleges and hospitals.

However, junior doctors across Bengal’s government teaching hospitals are only providing their version of “essential services”, that is, emergency and critical care. While announcing on September 19 an end to their 42-day cease-work, the junior doctors had said they would not join duties in the wards or OPD clinics.

“Learned senior counsel Ms Indira Jaising appearing for the resident doctors and counsel appearing for the… doctors categorically stated that all doctors have resumed duties and shall perform essential services including IPD and OPD,” the apex court said on Monday.

During the hearing, when Jaising said the junior doctors were performing “essential” services, Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had sought to know what the term meant.

“Will that mean you will not render services to a child who comes with normal ailment during the time but you will try and save a dying patient?” he asked.

Jaising said: “No, OPD falls within essential services.”

She added: “I want it on record that they (junior doctors) are performing emergency and essential services.”

A junior doctor had on September 19 said that how soon the medics would “go back to the OPD and all other duties will depend on the positive steps taken by the government and the individual medical college authorities to improve safety and security and ensure that another Abhaya does not happen”.

The junior doctors, who had threatened to return to a “complete cease-work” from Monday evening, were huddled in a meeting till late in the night. It was not yet clear whether they would resume all duties, continue with partial duties, or go back to a full cease-work.

The apex court had noted not just that the doctors had “resumed duties” but also that they “shall perform essential services including IPD and OPD”.

The junior doctors’ front had written two emails to the Bengal chief secretary on Thursday and Sunday saying the safety and security measures promised by the state government had not been implemented yet. The medics on Monday said they were yet to receive any reply to the emails.

However, junior doctors have been on a complete cease-work since Friday night at the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital in Kamarhati after some of them were allegedly assaulted by people known to a woman who died at the hospital.

The woman’s mother has alleged that the doctors did not treat her and blamed her death on negligence. The dead woman’s husband lodged an FIR on Monday.