Hundreds of beds are lying vacant in government hospitals with junior doctors on cease-work to protest against the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

On Tuesday, 1,200 beds were vacant at the Medical College Kolkata and 800 at SSKM Hospital.

Securing a bed at these two hospitals is a struggle during normal times.

The cease-work has severely impacted patient services, said senior officials of the state health department and administrators of medical colleges.

“Only patients who are critical or those who need emergency care are coming to hospitals. The rest have stopped coming,” said the principal of a medical college.

At the Medical College Kolkata, about 1,200 general beds were vacant on Monday. The hospital has about 3,000 general beds. “On a normal day, not a single bed is vacant,” said a health department official. The official said all critical care beds were still running full. About 5,000 patients visit the hospital’s OPD clinics on a normal day. The number has been around 2,500 since the cease-work began.

At the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), also known as SSKM Hospital, about 800 beds were vacant on Tuesday. There are 3,200 beds in the hospital.

Usually, 8,000 people used to visit the OPD clinics at IPGMER on a weekday. Only 5,000 people came to the OPD on Monday.

A senior administrator of a medical college told Metro that the impact would be there even after the cease-work was lifted. “The rolling of patients will be hit. The OPDs will likely be flooded for a few days after the cease-work is lifted,” said the administrator.

Amal Roy, 67, who was suffering from a fracture in the waist, was writhing in pain when he was brought to Medical College Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon. Roy lives on the pavement near Jorabagan police station. The police had arranged for a taxi and asked a local youth, Satyajit Pramanik, to take Roy to the hospital.

“I told them that the police had sent us, but still they did not admit him,” said Pramanik.

Sandhya Chakraborty, 65, was admitted to the Emergency ward of NRS Hospital with a renal infection on August 5.

Till August 8, doctors would visit her in the ward multiple times a day. “But since August 10, the services have been hit. The frequency of doctor visits dipped sharply,” said her niece Shilpi Chakraborty.

“On Saturday (August 18), I was told that a doctor would see her on Monday. That did not happen,” she said. Around 5.30pm on Tuesday, a doctor was yet to see her, told her niece.

Sultan Shah, 44, was lying on a stretcher in an ambulance at the emergency ward of SSKM Hospital. The Tamluk resident had suffered a cerebral stroke in the morning, His family members took him to a local hospital which referred him to SSKM.

He reached SSKM around 6pm. His brother-in-law, Rabiul Mallick, accompanied him. After a 20-minute wait, Mallick was allowed inside. “We have been asked to wait. A doctor will see him and then decide on the next course of action,” Mallick said after coming out.