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Union bosses struck a deal with the new caretaker administration to bring a halt to strike action in return for a better pay deal just days ahead of parliamentary elections.
The settlement, after eight hours of overnight talks ending on Wednesday, sees doctors benefiting from increased consultation fees starting in July and for home visits on October 1, medical union officials said.
Pay will rise to 20 euros from 18.5 euros, a measure estimated to cost the social security service a total of 255 million euros ($241 million) per year.
Doctors also agreed to prescribe more generic medicines and to limit non-essential home visits.
"The road has been long. Today, we feel satisfaction and relief," said Michel Chassang, President of the CSMF union, which represents at least 40 percent of France's general practitioners.
But Socialists, who lost power in presidential elections last month, said the deal was politically-motivated.
Jean Glavany, who managed former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's failed campaign for the presidency, told BFM radio in an interview: "Medical unions which were refusing to negotiate a few months ago for purely political reasons took part in the talks."
He pointed in particular at CSMF and its former leader Claude Maffioli, now a candidate for Chirac's Rally for the Republic party in the parliamentary elections, Reuters news agency reported.
"In particular, they are agreeing today to concessions which they were refusing yesterday," Glavany added.
Observers say re-elected President Jacques Chirac will hope the deal will give his party a boost in the June 9 and 16 elections.
Industrial action within the medical sector has hit France for months and widespread strikes in January -- involving doctors, nurses, dentists, surgeons and ambulance staff -- shocked a country long proud of its health service.
[CNN.com]
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Last Revised at December 10, 2007 by Lusine Kazoyan, M.D.
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