Thousands of doctors, nurses and other French hospital workers marched through Paris today to demand more staff and in protest at a reform plan that they fear stresses cost-saving over care.

The biggest French funeral home operator estimated about 13,600 more people will have died this month in France compared with last August, raising new worries today about the fallout from a deadly heat wave.

About 3,000 people have died in France of heat-related causes since abnormally high temperatures swept across the country two weeks ago, the health ministry said today.