The length of time people are spending waiting for a hospital bed is reducing, according to the Health Service Executive's Chief Clinical Officer.
It comes after the Irish Hospital Consultants Association called for a national emergency to be declared as hospital overcrowding remained at the highest recorded level for a second successive day.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said there were 760 patients waiting for admission to a bed.
The hospitals worst affected were University Hospital Limerick, St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, the Mater in Dublin and Cork University Hospital.
The Health Service Executive puts the national total lower at 530 patients, a 25% increase on the same day last year.
Unlike the INMO figures, the TrolleyGar figures do not give the number of patients placed on wards who are waiting for admission for a bed, having already been admitted from an emergency department.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News, Dr Colm Henry apologised to people who are waiting for a hospital bed, and said there was "no sense of complacency".
"Local teams are working very hard to make sure that anyone who is well enough to leave hospital can find a transition bed where required," Dr Henry said.
He said a number of factors were behind the record high number of people waiting for admission to hospital, such as the population living longer, which he said was causing many people who are over 75 to rely much greater on our health services.
He added that the health system needs at least 1,500 beds just to stabilise the system as it is now.
Dr Henry said more investment is needed in the community. The healthcare model in place in Ireland is "more akin to that in place in the 1970s, where we're almost inviting people to the acute services. This is not sustainable in the long run," he said.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Minister for Health Simon Harris has said it would not be appropriate to cancel all planned operations to deal with the current overcrowding pressures.
He said that no politician or trade union would decide a clinical matter like that. He said that there was a human impact with cancelled procedures and that these were clinical decisions.
His comments come as University Hospital Kerry, Cork University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital Cork cancelled elective surgeries.
UHK announced that all elective surgeries for this week have been cancelled due to the numbers of patients presenting with flu.
In a statement, UHK said it will review the decision on Thursday with regards to next week's elective surgeries and all patients impacted will be given an appointment as soon as possible.
The hospital urged people with flu-like symptoms to go to their GP or out-of-hours service in the first instance and said visitor restrictions are also in place at the hospital.
All elective surgery was cancelled at Cork's two main hospitals - Cork University Hospital and Mercy University Hospital - until further notice in response to overcrowding in their emergency departments.
Minister Harris said that of the 199 extra beds coming on line this month, 50 were open by yesterday.
He said he had spoken to the Chief Executive of the HSE and organisation was doing everything it possibly can to deal with the overcrowding.
Mr Harris said investment in extra beds, staff and supports would take time and he would also like to see more hospital discharges at weekends.
The HSE's National Director of Acute Operations said the health system remains under "very significant pressure".
Liam Woods said expanding capacity within the hospital system is "a key objective" in terms of being able to deal with the surge required for flu cases.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Woods said he believes the flu season peaked in weeks 51 and 52, which will be felt in hospitals in the coming two to three weeks.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Read more:
2019 worst year ever for hospital overcrowding - INMO
INMO and HSE to meet over Cork hospital overcrowding
The vice chair of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association said we are "so far behind where we need to be" that we should "just put our hands up and declare a national emergency".
Dr Laura Durcan, who is also a Consultant Rheumatologist at Beaumont Hospital, said that with the amount of money spent on healthcare, the system should be far better.
"We look at the electioneering that goes on around health and the political interference in things and it just makes me really sad because we spend loads of money.
"We should have a world-class health system but at the moment we don't. We go from fire to fire and we pour money at the worst problem at any given time".
Dr Durcan said that every time money is put into the private healthcare system, it should be matched in the public system.
She said the healthcare needs of the nation are "completely predictable", but until we have a situation where long-term vision is followed through on, we will see the same problems arising year on year.
"It's like trying to put out a fire with a teacup. We're so far away from that being a success story that I think we should just put our hands up and declare a national emergency."
Additional Reporting Fergal Bowers
