READY FOR BLACK EYE NIGHT
Blues will work in twos this Christmas as police and paramedics team up to go to the aid of Sunderland’s city centre revellers.
The Northumbria Police and the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) will be working together on Wearside on what will be among the busiest nights of the year over coming weeks.
Operation Ginger will see a paramedic join a police officer in an ambulance rapid response vehicle in the city centre so that they can respond to certain incidents together.
It will cover Friday, December 22, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day after being introduced to enable a more co-ordinated response to incidents in that area, with the project to also run in Newcastle.
On the last Friday before Christmas in 2016, North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) attended 501 incidents of which 94 were alcohol related.
There were about 250 more calls on that Friday night in comparison to a normal Friday.
Last New Year’s Eve, the service took 1,376 calls between 6pm and 6am and attended 636 incidents of which 159 incidents were related to alcohol.
Police have said they too see a spike in calls during the period within the city centres, with the decision to team up this year was made to ensure those most vulnerable receive the best support and so the organisations can deliver a good service as they face an increase in demand.
Douglas McDougall, strategic head of operations, at NEAS, said: “During the festive period we are expecting to receive a high number of calls to our service, many of which are alcohol related.
“People under the influence of alcohol can be more difficult to assess over the phone and on arrival at a scene, their behaviour can be more unpredictable.
“People consuming a lot of alcohol are also more likely to injure themselves in the course of their evening and require medical support.
“We will be working closely with our partners to ensure people who are out in the city celebrating are able to safely enjoy themselves and use the emergency services wisely.”
“We are expecting to receive a high number of calls” DOUGLAS MCDOUGALL