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Ambulance service receives emergency call every 8 seconds as Binge Britain welcomes in 2008
Binge-drinking revellers fuelled a chaotic start to 2008 as over-stretched ambulance workers battled to cope with emergency calls flooding in at a peak of one every eight seconds.
In the capital alone the London Ambulance Service had to deal with its highest number of emergency calls since the Millennium - the majority related to excess alcohol. As midnight came and went there was mayhem as scores of drunken partygoers around the country tumbled into the streets, some wearing little more than their underwear.
Fights erupted and a string of dishevelled young men and women collapsed on benches and in doorways, too inebriated to remember or care that the night was supposed to be a celebration.
There to mop up the mess were thousands of emergency workers drafted in to provide cover on the busiest night of the year.
In the first four hours of 2008, London Ambulance Service (LAS) dealt with an astonishing 1,825 calls alone, peaking at over 500 calls an hour between 2am and 4am. The volume of 999 calls was up 17 per cent on last year' and four times worse than a normal night.
Meanwhile in the West Midlands the ambulance service fielded 1,400 calls in just five hours - a rate of one every 12 seconds. It was mirrored by the North East Ambulance Service which received 1,860 calls between 11pm and 5am. Last night the astonishing number of calls to deal with booze-fuelled illness of injury prompted accusations that lives of those in real emergencies were being put at risk and demands for partygoers to wake up the costs of binge-drinking.
LAS spokeswoman Gemma Gidley said: "People need to think about the real consequences of drinking so much that they require treatment."
In Birmingham a group of friend bragged they would be "crawling" by the end of the night.
In Newcastle, in scenes mirrored everywhere, a young woman - shoeless and seemingly very much the worse for wear - had to be aided by paramedics while nearby a well-built man lay face down in the street after being set upon by four other men. "This is going to be a long night," said one weary paramedic, confiding: "We will spend all night picking up people who are too drunk to walk and people who got into fights."
For anyone not used to the less than sober face of a British New Year the night was something of an eye-opener. Belgian Florence Meganck, 25, was out in Bristol and summed up the evening.
"At 9pm I saw people throwing up - England is totally different to Belgium.
"The whole evening I have been watching English girls wearing dresses that only just cover their underwear. They zig-zag through the streets in their tiny skirts.
"I saw a girl who looked like she wasn't older than 12 buy alcohol from a shop and then give it to even younger girls waiting outside.
"Even though I haven't drunk tonight I have had such fun laughing at all the drunken English people. "But these drunks won't enjoy New Year's Eve, most of them won't even remember it."
Source - UK Daily Mail
Binge-drinking revellers fuelled a chaotic start to 2008 as over-stretched ambulance workers battled to cope with emergency calls flooding in at a peak of one every eight seconds.
In the capital alone the London Ambulance Service had to deal with its highest number of emergency calls since the Millennium - the majority related to excess alcohol. As midnight came and went there was mayhem as scores of drunken partygoers around the country tumbled into the streets, some wearing little more than their underwear.
Fights erupted and a string of dishevelled young men and women collapsed on benches and in doorways, too inebriated to remember or care that the night was supposed to be a celebration.
There to mop up the mess were thousands of emergency workers drafted in to provide cover on the busiest night of the year.
In the first four hours of 2008, London Ambulance Service (LAS) dealt with an astonishing 1,825 calls alone, peaking at over 500 calls an hour between 2am and 4am. The volume of 999 calls was up 17 per cent on last year' and four times worse than a normal night.
Meanwhile in the West Midlands the ambulance service fielded 1,400 calls in just five hours - a rate of one every 12 seconds. It was mirrored by the North East Ambulance Service which received 1,860 calls between 11pm and 5am. Last night the astonishing number of calls to deal with booze-fuelled illness of injury prompted accusations that lives of those in real emergencies were being put at risk and demands for partygoers to wake up the costs of binge-drinking.
LAS spokeswoman Gemma Gidley said: "People need to think about the real consequences of drinking so much that they require treatment."
In Birmingham a group of friend bragged they would be "crawling" by the end of the night.
In Newcastle, in scenes mirrored everywhere, a young woman - shoeless and seemingly very much the worse for wear - had to be aided by paramedics while nearby a well-built man lay face down in the street after being set upon by four other men. "This is going to be a long night," said one weary paramedic, confiding: "We will spend all night picking up people who are too drunk to walk and people who got into fights."
For anyone not used to the less than sober face of a British New Year the night was something of an eye-opener. Belgian Florence Meganck, 25, was out in Bristol and summed up the evening.
"At 9pm I saw people throwing up - England is totally different to Belgium.
"The whole evening I have been watching English girls wearing dresses that only just cover their underwear. They zig-zag through the streets in their tiny skirts.
"I saw a girl who looked like she wasn't older than 12 buy alcohol from a shop and then give it to even younger girls waiting outside.
"Even though I haven't drunk tonight I have had such fun laughing at all the drunken English people. "But these drunks won't enjoy New Year's Eve, most of them won't even remember it."
Source - UK Daily Mail
