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Curbs on bars that generate 999 calls
By Rebecca Smith, Evening Standard Health Reporter Last updated at 00:00am on 02.09.04Bars and clubs found to be the source of the most 999 calls to paramedics will be reported to police in a new bid to tackle binge drinking.
New ambulance managers are being appointed in each London borough to help hospitals, police and councils to identify premises that allow customers to become so drunk they are a drain on emergency services.
The move comes after the Standard revealed that two thirds of 999 calls to the London Ambulance Service ( LAS) at weekends are recorded as alcohol-related.
The problem costs the LAS at least ?18.6 million a year but the true figure could be double or triple that, because alcohol is not always noted as a factor when paramedics attend to patients who have been drinking.
The move to identify problem bars comes at the end of an eight-week Home Office campaign to stop anti-social behaviour linked to alcohol.
During the pilot scheme, conducted in a series of London boroughs, on-the-spot fines were issued for drunk and disorderly behaviour.
