Strategic investment is needed to address the pressure on capacity in Ireland's hospitals, according to the CEO of the Health Service Executive.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Paul Reid said improvements have been made in the last 24 hours, but "there is a lot more to do".
Hospital overcrowding eased today, according to figures from both the HSE and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
There were 621 patients waiting this morning, according to the INMO. The HSE has put the number lower at 421.
The hospitals worst affected are University Hospital Limerick and the Mater in Dublin.
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.
Mr Reid said that on a regular basis Ireland's hospitals are operating at 95% capacity, when this figure should be 85%.
He said an extra 2,500 beds were required to ease overcrowding across the country.
Mr Reid said improvements have been made in the last 24 hours, but a lot more needs to be done to stabilise the system.
He said the five key areas that need to be addressed to help prevent such overcrowding next winter are: investment in care in the community; better ways of working between the community and the acute system; more consultants and doctors; better organisation of hospitals to support 24/7 emergency care in some hospitals; and organisation of specialised elective care in some hospitals in order to manage surges in emergency care demands elsewhere.
Mr Reid said the implementation of Sláintecare is "the fundamental route we need to continue on".
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Worst overcrowding for 25 years, says Cork nurse
Earlier, a consultant in emergency medicine at Cork University Hospital said the "corridor medicine" that is being undertaken in overcrowded hospitals is "incredibly dangerous".
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Dr Conor Deasy quoted recent figures saying the mortality rate is one death for every 30 people who are waiting for a bed in similar situations.
He said he has seen an unprecedented level of overcrowding in recent days.
Dr Deasy said: "There has been a real uplift in overcrowding over the year. I was speaking about overcrowding on the 7th of July.
"When you're going into winter with that level of overcrowding, it is only going to get worse, and that is exactly what we're seeing."
Dr Deasy said a "ceiling on spend" and "the reduction in homecare package" are the major contributory factors to the current situation in the country's hospitals.
He said patients, many of them elderly, are "lined up head-to-toe" on trolleys, and he added that "frail elderly patients experiencing such conditions in the acute stage of their recovery is dangerous".
Dr Deasy said the intensive care unit in CUH is "under tremendous pressure".
He added that staff of the National Ambulance Service "are having to mind the patients until space is made" for them elsewhere in the hospital.
On the same programme, Fergal Hickey, a consultant in emergency medicine at Sligo University Hospital, said this level of overcrowding was "entirely predictable".
He said given that elective surgeries have been postponed the current situation proves that "even at the best of times, we don't seem to be capable to provide elective surgeries and emergency care simultaneously."
Additional Reporting: Fergal Bowers
