Bihar State Health Services President Ajay Kumar claimed that 2,500 permanent and 1,500 contractual doctors have gone on strike.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Ashwani Chaubey warned of strong action against the striking doctors for jeopardising the lives of patients and said alternative arrangements were being made for adequate deployment of doctors in hospitals.
Describing the strike as unfortunate and unnecessary, Chaubey said that the doctors should have taken into account patients before launching the strike.
The demands of the doctors included parity in salaries and allowances with doctors in central government services, regularisation of service of contractual doctors, security for doctors in hospitals and strengthening of the health directorate and infrastructure.