A hospital action group seeking assurances that Ennis General Hospital will retain its accident and emergency unit is due to meet Taoiseach Bertie Ahern this weekend.
Representatives of the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee will meet Mr Ahern at midday tomorrow when he pays a scheduled visit to the town.
Peadar McNamara, the group's chairman, said the half-hour meeting had been confirmed yesterday by the Taoiseach's office.
It will take place within days of the committee's sending leaflets to 44,000 homes in Co Clare outlining the case for the retention of the A&E unit, which is perceived to be under threat since the publication of the controversial Hanly report on hospital reorganisation.
The leaflet urges householders to write, phone, e-mail or fax Mr Ahern and Minister for Health Mary Harney with their objections to the removal of 24-hour, seven-day-a-week A&E services from Ennis hospital.
Mr McNamara said that while Ms Harney had announced €20.9 million in funding for the first phase of a development programme at the hospital in June, there was no mention of a commitment to keep the hospital's A&E unit open.
The committee's fears about the future of the unit had subsided for a period until Ms Harney wrote to a local TD at the end of April stating the Hanly report would be implemented.
And in July there were reports that the Department of Health wanted the roles of up to 12 smaller hospitals across the State "clarified", believing they would not have the staffing or workload to provide comprehensive acute care services for patients in the future.
This exercise was to be carried out by the new Health Service Executive's National Hospitals Office.
Mr McNamara said 44,000 of the 103,000 people in Clare lived more than an hour from the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick and therefore could not be treated for emergencies within the so-called "golden hour" period if the A&E department at Ennis was closed.
"We know from the hospital's records that they receive three to five life-threatening cases in A&E each week, and staff in the A&E unit say that at least 20 people will die per year if there is no A&E unit in Ennis," he said.
The Hanly report, published in 2003, made recommendations for just two former health board regions, the Mid Western and East Coast areas.
It said A&E units at smaller or local hospitals in these regions should be replaced with nurse-led minor injury units. It stressed, however, that changes should not begin until ambulance services were upgraded.
The Ennis delegation due to meet Mr Ahern will include Mr McNamara; Dr John O'Dea, a consultant anaesthetist at Ennis General Hospital; Dr Tom Nolan, a GP in Kilkee, and Tom Glynn, a Fianna Fáil member of Ennis Town Council.