Doctors, nurses and staff at Magura Sadar hospital abstained from work for about five and a half hours from 9:00 am yesterday to protest assault on a female nurse by a patient. They called off their strike and returned to their duties at 2:30 pm following a meeting with the local ruling party leaders. However, the assaulted female nurse, Sissam Chakma, lodged a case with Magura Sadar police station accusing patient Azad. Patients and sources at the hospital said Azad slapped the nurse at around 8:30 am yesterday as she allegedly did not pay heed to repeated request to attend him and misbehaved with him. The work abstention by the doctors and nurses caused untold sufferings to the patients at the hospital.