Bhopal, Aug 17 : The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Saturday asked the doctors to withdraw their strike and resume medical services without any delay.

The court has also asked the representatives of the doctors to submit their grievances that would be heard on priority.

The court's decision came as a big relief to the patients admitted in the emergency wards of hospitals across Madhya Pradesh.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Raj Mohan Singh issued the direction during the hearing on Saturday, a lawyer representing the petitioner told IANS.

Doctors have been on strike over the rape-murder of a junior doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last week.

On Friday, the court had issued notices to the state government and others seeking their reply in 24 hours on the strike called by the doctors on August 17 to protest against the rape and murder of a woman medic at a Kolkata hospital and vandalism of the health facility.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has declared a nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency health services for 24 hours beginning 6 a.m. on Saturday to protest against the rape-murder of the junior doctor.

"Subsequent to the brutal crime at the R.G. Kar Medical College in Kolkata and the hooliganism unleashed on the protesting students on the eve of Independence Day, the Indian Medical Association declares nationwide withdrawal of services by doctors of modern medicine from 6 a.m. on Saturday to 6 a.m. on Sunday for 24 hours.

"All essential services will be maintained. Casualties will be manned. Routine OPDs will not function and elective surgeries will not be conducted. The withdrawal is across all the sectors wherever modern medicine doctors are providing service. IMA requires the sympathy of the nation with the just cause of its doctors," an IMA statement said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of resident doctors have struck work in government hospitals in MP since Friday which led to the disruption of medical services.

Doctors in Bhopal claimed they have stopped attending patients in OPDs but emergency cases were taken on priority.

"Patients are our first priority but doctors also need protection. We welcome HC order, but the court should also direct the government to frame guidelines for doctors' protection," a senior doctor associated with the Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal said.

/IANS