A young woman suffering intermittent bouts of seizure came to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital all the way from Bankura with her mother around 4pm on Tuesday.

Treatment, finally, they hoped. Not to be.

RG Kar did not admit Roshneyra Khatun. They were asked to come back on Wednesday.

A doctor inside the trauma care centre told them that Roshneyra could not be admitted because there weren’t enough doctors, a family member said.

Thousands of patients are being denied treatment at government medical colleges because of a cease-work by junior doctors since a postgraduate trainee doctor was found raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

Around 5.30pm, Roshneyra and mother Mamoni Biwi were looking for a way to travel to Berachampa in North 24-Parganas for the night.

After recurrent seizures, Roshneyra was first admitted to Bishnupur Superspeciality Hospital on Sunday.

As her condition worsened because of alleged lack of treatment there, she was shifted to a local nursing home on Monday night. A night’s stay there cost ₹20,000.

The family could not cope with the expenses anymore and decided to take Roshneyra to RG Kar, where she was treated two years ago for the same complaints.

Mamoni Biwi said: “I thought the (junior doctors’) strike would come to an end. The elders in our family said the Supreme Court had asked the doctors to resume work. But we were wrong in hoping so.”

The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud on Monday said the junior doctors “must” return to work by 5pm on Tuesday. That did not happen.

Around 5pm on Tuesday, RG Kar hospital looked deserted. The protesting junior doctors had boarded pick-up trucks by the dozen a few hours ago. They squatted on the road leading to Swasthya Bhavan, the state health department’s headquarters in Salt Lake.

Their decision not to resume work has only aggravated the agonies of the likes of Roshneyra.

The family had paid ₹8,000 to an ambulance for the 140km ride to Calcutta.

Roshneyara shivered lying on the stretcher in front of the trauma care centre.

The mother said: “Two years ago, she was admitted without any hassle. This time, they denied her admission. We have been told to come again on Wednesday. But what if she is denied admission again?”

A relative, Abdur Rauf Ansari, said they struggled to pay the expenses they incurred to hire the ambulance and pay for the brief period of treatment at the private hospital.

“We are a family of farm labourers. We work on land owned by others. Travelling to Berachampa would cost us ₹2,000 more,” said Ansari.

Roshneyra lives with her in-laws in Bishnupur. Her parents are from Berachampa.

The state health department told the Supreme Court on Monday that 23 people died after being denied treatment because of the ongoing cease-work.

This newspaper has published a series of reports over the past month detailing the plight of patients who are being denied treatment at government medical colleges.