Hospital staff march on Paris

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 march was the latest in a week of protests against the conservative government’s reform plans.

As train service returned to normal today after a strike, airport staff walked out. However, the action wasn’t expected to seriously disrupt traffic at Paris’ two main airports.

Seven hospital unions planned demonstrations across France, from Lille in the north to the southern port of Marseille.

Hospital workers say they cannot keep pace with the influx of patients. In August, nearly 15,000 people died in France, many of them elderly, in a heat wave that overwhelmed emergency room doctors.

Shamed by the deaths, the government has pledged to the improve the public health care system, already one of the world’s best. But unions are worried about Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei’s plan to streamline hospitals, which was in the works before the heat wave struck.