The doctors resumed work on 25 February 1999 following an emphatic intervention by Delhi High Court and an assurance that their interests would be fully protected. In Kerala, post graduate medical students and house surgeons of the five medical colleges staged a demonstration in Thiruvananthapuram on 7 April 1999 and intensified agitation against the suspension of all striking doctors. Many civic and government-run hospitals in the city came to a standstill. The Maharashtra government retaliated by issuing termination notices to 476 unregistered resident doctors and decided to take action against the registered resident doctors after the deadline to end the strike expired on 4 December 1999. While doctors are struggling for higher wages, the nurses are battling the growing menace of sexual harassment in hospitals.
Nurses get meager wages, work under insanitary conditions and are vulnerable to sexual abuse.
More than 50 nurses of Osmania General Hospital, staged a dharna' in front of the main entrance of the hospital in Hyderabad on 19 May 1999 to protest against the alleged misbehavior and sexual harassment of a nurse by a house surgeon on the previous night. They went on strike demanding immediate expulsion of the surgeon. The agitation continued until the surgeon was expelled. The growing menace of sexual harassment in the work place hit Delhi hospitals as well. In New Delhi, nearly 70,000 health employees mostly nurses working in various city hospitals, dispensaries, offices and research institutes went for a day's strike on 27 July 1999 demanding the removal of Dr V K Arora, director of the Lala Swaroop T B hospital who was allegedly involved in a sexual harassment case.