PEOPLE who binge drink and need ambulances and paramedics to deal with them are putting the health of others at risk.

Paramedic Steve Blackmore said the number of calls for ambulances to deal with drunken patients was putting a strain on the service and said assaults on his staff from drunken patients were increasing.

Mr Blackmore was speaking as part of Wiltshire Police's OP XS campaign which this month will target excessive drinking.

Mr Blackmore, who is a divisional officer for the Great Western Ambulance Service, said: "The health of the nation is deteriorating. People are drinking at a younger and younger age and it is common place for teenagers to be drinking alcohol.

"While our ambulances are tied up dealing with drunks there are lots of other people who are waiting for an ambulance.

"People with heart attacks may be downgraded so we can attend someone who has been assaulted in a fight."

Mr Blackmore said ambulance staff are being put at risk and are experiencing assaults or verbal abuse on almost a weekly basis.

He said a member of staff had just returned from three months off sick after being assaulted by a drunken patient and that another crew member was slapped across the face by a drunken friend of a patient who had fallen down some stairs after drinking.

He added that the patient did not require an ambulance and the police were called to deal with the incident.

Each month of OP XS has a different theme, and September's is alcohol related death and the effect of alcohol on health.

In September 2004, Lita Willcox, a 32-year-old mother of four, was found dead in a hotel room in Warminster surrounded by empty bottles of wine and vodka.

An inquest later found that alcohol had killed Miss Willcox and her mother spoke out at the time about the deadly effects of drinking too much. Miss Willcox's mother, Christine Linden, said: "I hope that if anything comes from this it is that other people realise the dangers of alcohol."

She said people needed to think before they go out on all-night drinking sessions.

Pathologists found that the alcohol level in Miss Willcox's blood was 185mg per ml and that her liver was very fatty - a tell-tale sign of someone who drinks a lot of alcohol.

Mrs Linden added: "The thing is, it could happen to anybody if they go out on a night drinking and have too much.

"People don't realise the dangers of drinking because it's seen as a sociable thing but it can be just as deadly as drugs."