By EMS1 Staff
MANSFIELD, England — An EMS agency is deploying mobile treatment units in popular locations around the city to be on standby to treat intoxicated people during the holidays.
Nottingham Post reported that East Midlands Ambulance Service will equip the mobile units with paramedics, sick buckets, stretchers and defibrillators to treat people who have had too much to drink instead of dispatching an ambulance.
“Often patients who have been drinking excessively become high priority calls because their symptoms replicate those of someone who is suffering a cardiac arrest - or unresponsive,” deputy director of operations Ben Holdaway said. “Our crews are sent to the emergency at high speeds to reach the patient as quickly as possible and then find the patient to be intoxicated, needing a glass of water and a taxi home.”
The agency urged people to be responsible and to not “be the person who takes an ambulance away from someone who really needs help.”
https://twitter.com/EMASNHSTrust/status/943504788439912448