Hundreds of people are expected to travel from Monaghan to Dublin today to protest outside the Dáil in opposition to plans to reduce services further at Monaghan General Hospital.
Up to 18 buses were last night ready to ferry people to the capital for the protest, which is scheduled to begin at noon and continue until 2pm.
Peadar McMahon of the Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance said this was the latest in a series of demonstrations being held in support of the local hospital and people were still not giving up.
They would not stand for the downgrading of their local hospital.
Up to 8,000 people attended a previous protest in Monaghan town in September.
"The Minister for Health says that no services will be removed from Monaghan until a better service is in place elsewhere but already services have been removed without better services being put in place," Mr McMahon claimed.
Services which had been removed, he said, included emergency surgery and maternity services.
"And we are about to lose further services and we have no confidence that a better service will be in place," he said.
"We don't see that putting emergency services in Cavan or Drogheda will meet the needs of the people of Monaghan," he said.
Members of Monaghan County Council, who are unhappy about the outcome of a meeting they had with Minister for Health Mary Harney last month, will also attend today's protest.
Ms Harney insisted at the meeting that changes in the way hospital services were currently organised in the northeast and at Monaghan in particular had to be made in the interests of patient safety.
The people of Monaghan have been campaigning for the retention of services at their local hospital for years but stepped up their campaign in September following the publication of a report into the death of Pat Joe Walsh, who bled to death at the hospital when doctors there were unable to perform emergency surgery on him.
The report recommended all acute inpatient services "be suspended as soon as is practically possible" from Monaghan hospital.
The Health Service Executive has repeatedly said it will be implementing the report.
Mr McMahon said Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance had still not ruled out fielding candidates in the general election.