Several patients who were turned away from College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital on Sunday were told that there were not enough doctors to treat them.

The junior doctors at the hospital went on a cease-work on Friday night after an alleged assault on doctors, nurses and healthcare workers by relatives of a patient who died at the hospital on Friday afternoon.

Shephali Ghosh, 30, a resident of Sodepur was refused admission though doctors at the hospital opined that she needed a surgery for her fractured left leg. Her husband, Rajkumar, said those who treated Ghosh said there were not enough doctors to perform the surgery.

“My wife fell from the stairs at Sodepur station. An X-ray done in this hospital showed that she has a fracture in her leg. The doctors told us that a normal plaster won’t work and she needs a surgery,” Rajkumar said while waiting outside the emergency at Sagore Dutta hospital.

“The doctors said there were not enough doctors to do the surgery,” he said. “The doctors did not even write a referral on the patient card and said it was upto us where we wanted to take her,” said Rajkumar, a hawker at Sodepur railway station. He said it was not possible for him to bear expenses of treating his wife at a nursing home.

Rajkumar and others like him has been made more vulnerable because the situation in other medical colleges may not be better. Junior doctors have threatened to start a cease-work in all medical colleges from Monday evening.

Santosh Saha, 71, a resident of Barrackpore, came to the hospital after speaking with a doctor at the hospital over the phone. On arrival, the family was told there were not enough doctors to treat Saha.

Saha was lying on a stretcher outside emergency ward for an hour on Sunday afternoon. “For several days the doctors at the hospital had been treating my uncle. He had an allergic reaction after taking a medicine on Sunday morning and developed breathing trouble. We called up the doctor who treated him earlier. He asked us to come to the hospital and get him admitted,” Papiya Banerjee, Santosh’s niece, said.

On arrival, the family could not reach the doctor on the phone and took Santosh to the emergency. “The doctors at the emergency ward conducted a sugar test and asked us to either bring him to the OPD on Monday or take him to some other government hospital,” said Papiya.

“The doctors at the emergency said enough doctors were not available to treat my uncle,” she said.

Mohammad Mumtaz, 70, suffering from an infection on his left foot, was turned away from the hospital on Sunday.

“My father is suffering from an infection on his left foot and it is spreading rapidly. Also there is a lot of pain. The doctors at the emergency ward did not even check him,” said Mohammad Emran, Mumtaz’s son.

“We requested them to do a dressing on his foot so that he could get some relief, but they refused. They did not even write any referral on the patient card and told us verbally to take him elsewhere,” said the resident of Barrackpore.

“Our teaching doctors are working overtime to treat the patients. There is bound to be some delay in the treatment because of the absence of the junior doctors. We are trying our best with the faculty. May be the doctors are asking the non-emergency cases to come back to the OPD the next day,” said Parthapratim Pradhan, the principal said.