PATNA, Sept. 11 -- Much to the relief of the poor patients, around 1,200 nurses of the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) called off their five-day protest after their meeting with Bihar's health minister Mangal Pandey and health secretary Lokesh Kumar Singh on Wednesday. "The nurses have called off their protest and resumed their respective duties on Wednesday evening," said Dr IS Thakur, medical superintendent of the PMCH. He accepted that patients had begun leaving the century-old state-run institution and going to other health facilities as a majority of the nurses staged a protest by not attending to their workstations The nurses had abstained from work for five days from last Saturday, demanding an increase in their retirement age from 60 to 70 years. Among the other salient demands of the nurses were confirmation of service without having to appear for departmental exams, implementation of the old pension scheme, publication of seniority list and availing of compensatory leave within the same calendar year, instead of the next. The nurses claimed they had received satisfactory assurance both from the health minister and the health secretary regarding fulfilment of most of their demands. "The health minister has assured us to fulfil almost 80% of our demands, except re-implementing the old pension scheme for those who joined government service after 2005. As for an increase in our retirement age, the minister said he will take it up after the assembly elections, likely in the next two months. He has agreed to implement most of our demands within a week," said Amita Kumari, who claimed to be the secretary-cum treasurer of the Bihar 'A' Grade Nurses Association.. Earlier, the health department had on Monday constituted a two-member committee, headed by the director-in-chief (nursing) Dr Pramod Kumar Singh and Renu Kumari, officer on special duty in the department of health, to look into their demands. The government had also directed three staff nurses, including Bitika Biswas, Anita Kumari and Reshma to place the demands of the nurses before the two-member committee. Nearly 1200 nurses are on strike from Saturday, affecting hospital services, as patients services have been severely hampered. However, most of the striking nurses were marking their attendance and leaving their work stations. The government has abolished the old pension scheme for all those appointed after 2005....