IT’S a huge party for millions of revellers – but New Year’s Eve is the worst night of the year for Midland paramedics.

For the busiest night of the year is also the period when West Midlands Ambulance Service staff suffer the most abuse from partygoers left the worse for wear by drink.

Temporary minor injury units will swing into action in Birmingham and Solihull to keep accident and emergency departments clear for genuine emergencies.

Steve Elliker, West Midlands Ambulance Service’s head of security and safety, said staff faced being abused, kicked, punched and spat at.

Mr Elliker said: “Wherever possible, we will press charges and work tirelessly to make people account for their despicable actions in the courts.

“Our staff are there to help people in their hour of need and they need to be allowed to do so without fear or violence.”

Between 8pm on December 31 and 5am on New Year’s Day a year ago, more than 2,000 calls came in to the operations centre, against an average of 2,500 calls over a normal 24 hours.

Some 999 callers even blocked the emergency line on New Year’s Day morning complaining of a hangover.

Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer Mark Gough said: “While the majority of people will be out celebrating, our staff will be working flat out.

“We will have dozens of extra staff working overnight staffing additional ambulances and rapid response vehicles.

“And we will be working with voluntary organisations including to run temporary minor injury units in Birmingham and Walsall to deal with revellers who have a mishaps or are too drunk to keep themselves safe.

“The last thing we want to do is to stop people having a good time but our experience of previous Hogmanay celebrations means we expect to see many preventable injuries.

“Because our staff are dealing with these, they aren’t available to get to the truly life threatening calls as quickly as they might have been able to, which ultimately puts the lives of other people at risk.”

ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY WARNING>>>>