THE scale of Scotland's binge-drink culture was exposed yesterday as it emerged ambulances were sent to three alcohol-related incidents per minute on Hogmanay.
Crews had 'exceptional workload'
The Scottish Ambulance Service received a record 2,288 calls during a 12-hour period, including the height of New Year celebrations.
The figures represent a 22 per cent rise in 999 calls compared with the same night a year earlier. Officials said the majority were made between midnight and 3am yesterday, with most of them linked to alcohol.
The statistics come just days after Kenny MacAskill, Scotland's justice secretary, claimed getting drunk had almost become a "national sport".
Last night, Mr MacAskill called on Scots to make a "collective New Year's resolution" to address alcohol abuse.
In response to the 999 figures, he said: "I think it's a shocking indictment and it shows the journey we need to take as a nation.
"We, as a government, will be taking action, but we want the nation to make a change as well. We want people to enjoy Ne'erday and Hogmanay, but we've got to show consideration for others as well.
"We need a collective New Year's resolution to change our relationship with alcohol – to learn to enjoy it but not to abuse it."
Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that men and women in Scotland were twice as likely to die an alcohol-related death as people in the UK as a whole.
Scottish Ambulance Service officials had anticipated a hectic night and had put contingency plans in place, ensuring extra crews were on call.
A spokesman said: "Hogmanay is always our busiest night and this year was no different, as we dealt with a record number of calls across the country. Around three-quarters of the calls were received after midnight and the majority were alcohol-related.
"All staff on duty (on Hogmanay] had to cope with an exceptional workload, and they did so admirably."
Dispatchers in Edinburgh were the busiest, as the ambulance service's call-centre handled 962 calls between 7pm on Hogmanay and 7am yesterday. The call centre in Glasgow received 795 calls, while Inverness dealt with 531 during the same 12-hour period.
The figures do not include hoaxes, although a small percentage will be repeated calls about a single incident.
However, Scotland's accident and emergency departments did not report a similar "spike" in the number of people arriving with injuries. Medics at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, the busiest A&E ward north of the Border, dealt with 180 cases between 10pm on Hogmanay and 8am yesterday.
A spokesman for NHS Lothian said: "This is slightly busier than we would expect on a busy Saturday night, but our staff said that it was not significantly busier than we were expecting or had planned for." Greater Glasgow NHS said that reports from staff at its four A&E units across the city suggested they, too, had not been "significantly busier" than usual.
• A 42-year-old man is due to appear at Alloa Sheriff Court tomorrow in connection with a fireworks attack on the town's police office.
The foyer area was left scorched after the pyrotechnics were set off at about 9:45pm on Monday. Central Scotland Police said no-one had been injured during the incident.
The full article contains 556 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
