The damage inflicted on the 999 services by Labour’s 24-hour licencing laws is revealed in a damning report today.

A&E staff, paramedics and police officers are spending a quarter of their time dealing with drunks when they could be saving lives and solving crimes.

Doctors report their intense frustration at the fact that a collapsed reveller is given priority over an elderly patient lying at home with a broken hip.

A&E staff, paramedics and police officers are spending a quarter of their time dealing with drunks

Meanwhile, police officers say they are still locking up drunks at 9am and have no time to patrol the streets or solve burglaries.

Many say the only solution is to scrap the 24-hour licensing policies introduced in 2005 and revert back to traditional 11pm pub closing times.

A report by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, which surveyed more than 4,834 doctors, paramedics, police and firemen, warns that binge drinking has created a ‘culture of fear’ in the emergency services.

The authors urge the Government to roll out ‘drunk tanks’ in towns and cities – mobile units where revellers can sober up – to avoid them having to go to A&E or police cells.

They conclude: ‘Perhaps the most shocking finding of our survey was how widespread drunken physical, sexual and verbal abuse of emergency services staff is.

‘This has created a culture of fear in the emergency services, particularly for those out on the streets.’

More than three-quarters of police officers (76 per cent) surveyed had been injured by drunks and just over half of paramedics (52 per cent) had been sexually harassed.

One police officer said: ‘I work in Blackpool where clubs are open until 6am, we haven’t enough staff to deal and can be still locking drunk people up to 9am, sometimes even later.’

More than three-quarters of police officers (76 per cent) surveyed had been injured by drunks

Another said that 24-hour licensing, introduced in 2005 by Tony Blair, had ‘changed policing forever’.

‘The majority of time is spent dealing with the fallout from the night-time economy - no longer are we able to patrol residential areas to catch burglars etc.’ he added.

Many doctors and paramedics said intoxicated patients should be fined for attending casualty or being picked up by paramedics.

The average cost of treating a drunk in A&E is around £120, rising to £320 if they need to be taken to hospital in an ambulance.

Based on the responses from the survey, the researchers estimated that drunks take up a third of ambulance workers’ time and a quarter of that of A&E staff.

One paramedic said: ‘It is infuriating when drunken collapses in the city centre at night time take priority and old folk are left lying on the floor at home with a broken hip for hours on end as they are a lower priority.’

Consultants said drunks often take six hours ‘to deal with’ and roam the corridors, smash equipment and upset other patients.

Katherine Brown, director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies said: ‘The level of alcohol-fuelled abuse experienced by our frontline services is totally unacceptable.

‘People who work to protect the public, often risking their own safety to do so, should not have to face drunken assaults and harassment as part of their daily routine.

‘The Government needs to take a tougher stance on the availability of cheap alcohol and do more to protect our emergency services.’

Dr Cliff Mann, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said: ‘We as a college are extremely concerned about the harm attributable to alcohol, including the impact on the ambulance service in the UK and our already hard-pressed emergency departments.