Some 5,000 Clare people took to the streets of Ennis on Saturday in protest at Minister for Health Mary Harney's recent decision to cut 24-hour accident and emergency services at Ennis General Hospital.
The protest was organised by the Clare Cancer Concern group and the Ennis General Hospital development committee.
Committee chairman Peadar McNamara said the decision to reduce A&E services, announced by Ms Harney 12 days ago, flew in the face of the electoral wishes of Clare people and made no medical sense.
He said the Government had waited until the general election was safely over before rubbishing the promises of its Clare TDs - Minister of State Tony Killeen and Timmy Dooley TD.
"The decision is undemocratic and unsafe. It will lead to 20 premature deaths in Clare annually because huge swathes of the county are more than one hour away from the Midwestern Regional Hospital in Limerick.
"Nearly half of the 100,000 people in the county will be outside the 'golden hour' when access to emergency care saves most lives," he said.
Buses from around the county brought protesters to Ennis to follow in procession behind a coffin symbolising the end of the 24-hour service. One of the protesters, who travelled from Kilrush in west Clare, said that everybody was concerned about the added travel time for accessing A&E services at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.
"The cutting of 24-hour A&E has an even bigger impact that the closure of Kilrush hospital in the seventies," Christy O'Malley said. "From Loop Head or anywhere west of Kilkee I would have serious concerns about making it to Limerick in time in an emergency.
"The service is aggravated now by the difference in travel time and there is no guarantee of an unobstructed traffic run to Limerick. Every minute you are away from the required service and the expertise, you are at grave risk."
Mr McNamara added that Ms Harney's promise that despite the cuts Ennis hospital would benefit from a consultant-led accident and emergency service was total nonsense.
"The news for her from the county today is that Ennis hospital already has consultant-led A&E services, services we intend to keep, despite the actions of a single PD Minister now doing the Government's dirty work.
"Nationally, more than 400,000 people will be more than one hour away from their A&E services if the Hanly/Teamwork proposals are implemented in full," he said.