A woman whose husband died at University Hospital Limerick said they have been promised changes but have gotten 'sticking plasters' instead.
Marie McMahon was speaking ahead of a protest on Sunday to highlight overcrowding at the hospital.
Her husband Thomas died back in 2018 after he spent 36 hours on a trolley.
Ms McMahon told Lunchtime Live the only changes since then have been bad ones.
"It has changed in the sense that it's got a lot worse," she said.
"The figures have escalated numbers on trolleys.
"We've been promised changes, sticking plasters is what we've got over our services.
"We have a population of approximately 425,000 in Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary, and the only Emergency Department we have is UHL.
"That doesn't happen anywhere else in the country.
"Everywhere else in the country people can access alternative Emergency Departments.
"Some people in my region, in particular in Clare, are well over an hour [away] - some up to two hours - to get to UHL."
'We're not going away'
Ms McMahon said people who do turn up for treatment often leave without being seen.
"People are despairing, the mantra is now, 'Please don't send me to UHL - if I have to go to UHL, I'd rather die in my own bed at home'," she said.
"That's our reality.
"Sometimes people go and they're waiting so long, and they're so ill, that they walk out and leave.
"We need people to listen, we need those in authority to listen.
"There is no party in this country that has come out so far and said, 'You need additional Emergency Department facilities'.
"We've been promised reports, we've been promised elective hospitals which don't have an Emergency Department.
"Anything that we can do to make it better we are going to do - we're not going away," she added.
Ms McMahon said they hope to raise awareness of the problem on Sunday at 1pm and get some kind of response.
Listen back here:
