CALLS to the Scottish Ambulance soar 30 per cent when Old Firm clashes fall on pay days and drink-fuelled revelry causes chaos on the streets, The Scotsman has learned.
The new chief executive of the ambulance service has warned that drink-related incidents are diverting paramedics from road accidents and patients with serious health problems.
Kevin Doran, who previously ran Jobcentre Plus, also said that there
was an increasing tension between public-sector workers and the people they try to help, leading to more attacks on staff.
He spoke out as new figures showed the service was achieving its best-ever response times to emergency calls. The average time is now 6.9 minutes – far better than the eight-minute target set by the Scottish Government. The service is also now only a few percentage points short of the aim of getting to 75 per cent of calls in that timeframe.
However, calls to the ambulance service are increasing by just over 4 per cent a year and the chief executive said he believed the most "worrying" reason for it was alcohol abuse. It is also getting more calls for non- life-threatening conditions, as the age of the population increases with associated illnesses.
When Rangers and Celtic football matches coincide with pay weekends, demand increases by 30 per cent during a five-six hour period. "That's a real problem for us and I feel it's that misuse of alcohol that causes those problems at the weekend," he said.
"The sad thing is if we have to send a paramedic to you we don't have that resource available to send to the person having a heart attack, the car accident, the mother whose baby is choking."
He said the service ploughed all the resources it could into the problem, with extra overtime and specialist back-up.
The binge culture also contributes to increased physical and verbal attacks on workers. Mr Doran said: "I'm sorry to say (the violence] ties in with growing levels of potential tension between public-sector staff and the people they work with.
"In my previous job, I was director of Jobcentre Plus. When you think about what they do – as well as finding jobs for people, they pay out benefits – and they have issues of violence.
"In terms of public-sector organisations, it's something that's around. It's deeply regrettable."
Jack Law, the chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said he was "not surprised" by the binge culture challenges facing paramedics. He said accident and emergency departments had also seen a major increase in alcohol-related admissions.
"The violence towards staff doesn't surprise me either because being drunk reduces people's inhibitions and they are less likely to be in control of their behaviour," he said. "This is absolutely consistent with the many concerns we have got about the way we drink in Scotland."
