On-the-spot clinic for injured revellers

Revellers will be able to get on-the-spot emergency treatment in Stourbridge on New Year's Eve.

Patients who have had too much to drink or are suffering from cuts, sprains and bruises will be able to jump the queue at A&E.

West Midlands Ambulance Service will be running a temporary unit in Parkfield Road following similar schemes in Wolverhampton and Birmingham city centre. The aim of the unit is to take pressure off A&E departments during the busiest party nights in December.

Patients with minor injuries, the walking wounded and revellers who have had too much to drink will all be treated at the unit.

Patients will arrive at the units by ambulance, thus avoiding long waits in casualty departments.

Medics will treat minor injuries and illness such as alcohol intoxication, suspected strains, sprains, cuts and bruises.

Paramedics, police officers, ambulance staff and volunteers will be staffing the unit, together with doctors and nurses from the Central Accident Resuscitation and Emergency (CARE) Team and trained St John Ambulance volunteers.

The unit, which will be up and running between 9pm and 5am on December 31, is being funded by Dudley Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Acting director of operational service delivery Jerry Penn Ashman said: "The unit in Birmingham has already been proven to be a resounding success on bank holiday weekends this year since it was launched in December 2007.

"It is hoped the unit in Stourbridge town centre will have the same advantageous effects to both the ambulance service and local A&E departments, by providing alternative locally-based medical care to patients."

The setting up of the unit follows reports of unprecedented numbers of 999 emergency calls.