The gate of the emergency ward of the NRS Medical College and Hospital was open on Friday, giving an impression that emergency services had resumed, but guards were spotted turning away patients saying there were no doctors inside.

When Metro entered the emergency unit around 4pm, junior doctors and students were holding meetings in groups in the observation rooms.

A little before that, a 17-year-old boy with gallstone was turned away from the emergency ward. Trilokhi Das, a resident of Bihar, was suffering from severe abdominal pain. “We reached the gate of the emergency ward jostling our way through agitating doctors. But the guards did not let us step in. They said there were no doctors inside,” said Arun Das, Trilokhi’s uncle.

Arun said Trilokhi had come to Calcutta for treatment on Monday. “We couldn’t take him to any hospital on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as we were waiting for the ceasework to end. But we could not wait any further as he complained of excruciating abdominal pain this afternoon,” Arun said.

Trilokhi’s mother Gita Debi looked on helplessly.

In the morning, Sakila Bibi, who had come from Bongaon in North 24-Parganas, had to return after being denied treatment in the emergency unit.

“I have a cardiac problem. Both my legs have swollen and I am unable to walk,” said Sakila.

She arrived at the hospital around 11am and was allowed to enter the emergency unit. She said she stepped out within five minutes as there were no doctors.

Sakila spent over an hour in the waiting area for patients outside the emergency ward hoping a doctor would turn up. No one did.

Fewer patients turned up at NRS hospital on Friday compared with the past two days. Those who came were suffering from serious ailments but most had to return without treatment.

During the day, the agitating students formed a group called Save the Saviours, comprising junior doctors from various hospitals and medical colleges in Bengal.

The group demanded that chief minister Mamata Banerjee visit Paribaha Mukhopadhyay, one of the two junior doctors assaulted at NRS early on Tuesday after the death of a patient there, at the Institute of Neurosciences. Mukhopadhyay suffered a dent on his skull and had to be operated on.

Save the Saviours demanded a judicial inquiry into the alleged police inaction that led to attack on junior doctors at NRS and upgrade of infrastructure at all health-care facilities.

A section of the agitating doctors expressed the apprehension that “false cases” could be filed against them related to Monday night’s incident.

“We fear the family of the deceased could lodge a complaint against junior doctors for assaulting them. Police should not entertain such false cases,” a doctor said.