ONE in ten ambulance callouts in the North-East in a single year were drink related, according to new figures.

Researchers from Newcastle University found that between April 2009 and March 2010, 31,000 ambulance callouts in the North-East related to problems caused by drink.

One in ten of all call-outs in that year were alcohol-related, costing the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) £9m.

Professor Eileen Kaner, of Newcastle University, said “pre-loading” on cheap supermarket alcohol before going out was linked with many incidents and that minimum alcohol pricing should be taken “very seriously”.

Scaled up to cover the entire country, that would be about £150m a year.

The researchers used digitally recorded incident logs from the NEAS between April 2009 and March 2010.

Ms Kaner, professor of public health at the university and an author of the research, published in the Journal, Alcohol and Alcoholism, said: “It is clear that drinking hits us all in the pocket.

“This study just looked at the cost directly for the ambulance service, it didn’t take into account all the other NHS and policing costs of dealing with drunken behaviour.

“And this is not just a problem among the young, we found a large proportion of these call-outs were for middle- aged people.

“Pre-loading is a really big factor these days. People are drinking a lot more at home before they go out and then carrying on once they are in pubs and bars.

“There is a very strong link between alcohol price and consumption. Minimum alcohol pricing has to be looked at very seriously.”

Richard Ilderton, a paramedic with the NEAS, said: “I have been assaulted, both verbally and physically, as have most of my colleagues.

There are problems every weekend.

“I had one call out where I had an unconscious woman in the back of the ambulance and a man decided to sit in front of the ambulance on the road and eat his pizza.

“He refused to move and in the end I had to get the police involved. I was held up for about ten minutes.

“Fortunately the woman was okay, but it could have been a lot more serious.”

Jay Duckett, clinical audit manager at NEAS, urged everyone in the North-East “to drink in moderation”, to reduce the burden on vital ambulance services.