Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she hoped “good sense will prevail” among striking junior doctors who have not returned to work yet and said her government wanted to set up immediate medical camps in the flood-hit districts of Bengal.

Mamata said she feared a spurt in fever and diarrhoea once the water receded.

Hours later, on Thursday night, the striking junior doctors announced that they will end their sit-in outside Swasthya Bhavan and resume “essential services” in hospitals from Saturday.

After her meeting with the junior doctors at her home in Kalighat on Monday, Mamata had raised fears of a spurt in water-borne diseases, malaria and dengue after the floods while urging junior doctors to come back to work.

“I want to tell the doctors, once the water recedes, snakes have taken refuge on land, there will be diarrhoea, fever. I called the chief secretary and asked him to set up medical camps in some places immediately,” the chief minister said on Thursday afternoon while visiting flood-ravaged neighbourhoods in Howrah’s Udaynarayanpur.

“I want to do medical camps. Doctors have not returned to work. I have tried as much as I could. I hope good sense will prevail because people are hit by the floods. The most important job for us now is to save lives. This is not the time to do politics,” Mamata said.

While responding to an email from junior doctors who sought a meeting with him on Wednesday, chief secretary Manoj Pant wrote: “You are aware that many districts of South Bengal are facing flood-like situations with vast areas inundated.”

The email said: “We again appeal to you to join duties in larger public interest and provide services to common people.”

At a news briefing after the meeting with junior doctors on Monday, Mamata had also highlighted the flood-like situation and why doctors needed to resume duties in such a scenario.

Bengal’s junior doctors had been on strike for 42 days.