THE public are being urged to act sensibly tonight to help overstretched ambulance crews cope on their busiest night of the year.

Lancashire Ambulance Service is expecting up to five times the usual number of emergency call-outs.

Bernard Glenholme, its director of ambulance and emergency services, is urging people to take care and ensure they do not spoil their celebrations by needing an ambulance.

He said: "In the festive season, people tend to drink more than usual. And where alcohol is involved we, as an emergency service, see an increase in calls to incidents like accidents in the home and assaults where serious injury has occurred.

"We are not killjoys but would urge the public to act sensibly, especially where drink is involved."

He added that the early hours of New Year's morning was the busiest time of year for the ambulance service.

"We will be called to some four or five times the number of emergency calls we would normally attend and therefore some additional resources are being put in place," he said.

"However, there will be occasions where demand is so excessive where we will not be able to respond as fast as we would like."

Mr Glenholme said the public should not be deterred from dialling 999 but said callers should be prepared to answer some questions which would help identify people suffering from an immediate life-threatening problem.

He said callers would be given advice over the phone to enable them to help the patient until the ambulance arrived.

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