French doctors and airport staff staged protests on Thursday, a day after a train strike upset travel in a week of protests in various sectors to pressure the conservative government over its economic reforms.
Doctors took to the streets to protest against chronic understaffing and what some believe is creeping privatisation of one of the world's most highly rated public healthcare systems.
There was also brief disruption to flights at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris but a spokeswoman said traffic was almost normal despite protests against plans to sell part of the Aeroports de Paris airport company to private interests.
"Emergency service workers are back at work. Things are back to normal," the ADP spokeswoman said, attributing some minor delays to fog around the capital.
Doctors and hospital staff organised work stoppages across the country, angry over lack of staff, reorganisation plans for the hospital network and also worried about what will come of vows to undertake a cost-cutting reform of public healthcare.
"There's not enough of us. We're worn out and whenever there's an emergency, we're struggling," Marie-Helene Berlocchio, who works at a psychiatric hospital in the southern port city of Marseille, told LCI television.
Patrick Pelloux, a Paris emergency ward doctor who shot to fame when he attacked the government for misreading a heatwave that ultimately killed 15,000 people in August, said government changes to hospital organisation smelled of privatisation.
"This...hides the start of privatisation. We risk ending up with hospitals which focus on the most profitable activities," said Pelloux.
He said he feared "dogmatic government advisers" would also propose reforms of the deficit-plagued healthcare system where profit would take precedence over comprehensive public service.
Hospitals usually guarantee basic services during stoppages and Thursday's one-day action comprised a mixture of sporadic work halts plus a street march to the health ministry in Paris.
The strikes come before a government-appointed committee hands over recommendations on how to stem the growing financial deficit run by France's expensive healthcare system.
The committee chaired by Bertrand Fragonard, a leading expert on the legal affairs of state, is seen recommending an increase in healthcare funding via the CSG income-related tax, an unpopular measure the government would like to avoid.
According to a draft of its conclusions seen this week by Reuters, the committee will further note that healthcare costs are likely to continue to grow rapidly and insist there is room for a better deployment of existing funds.
The report is to be handed to Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei on Friday and he is expected to outline reform proposals by early April, followed by draft legislation by end-June.
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