The region's first field hospital to treat drink-related casualties has been hailed a success.

Ambulance bosses believe that last weekend's pilot scheme in Newcastle eased pressure on 999 services.

They say it allowed paramedic crews to make a speedier response to life-threatening emergencies in other parts of Tyneside.

Health chiefs will now decide whether the field hospital should become a regular feature in the city centre.

Set up in the Guildhall, in the popular Quayside area, the service treated 20 people on Friday and Saturday nights.

Eight of those treated by the unit were unconscious because of excess alcohol and needed long spells of treatment and monitoring.

Other patients included party-goers who had been assaulted or had fallen over.

The longest time any patient stayed in the unit before being discharged was three-and-a-half hours.

The unit had two stretcher beds, four trolley beds and chairs for patients who were brought in by ambulance or walked in off the street.

It was staffed by a doctor, paramedics and technicians from North East Ambulance Service and volunteers from St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross Society.

Simon Swallow, emergency planning officer for North East Ambulance Service, who oversaw operations at the centre over two nights, said: "It was a success. We got busy on Friday night after 10.30pm and dealt with 11 cases up to 3am on Saturday."

The treatment post "almost certainly helped to ease the pressure in the accident and emergency (A&E) department to deal with medical emergencies," he said.

Paul Liversidge, director of A&E for North East Ambulance Service, said: "Having a local medical-receiving unit adjacent to where we expect high levels of activity is a real benefit."

He said the ability to respond to emergency calls across Tyneside "has definitely improved" with patients getting a much speedier response.

A full evaluation of the trial medical centre will be carried out by North of Tyne Commissioning Consortium, North East Ambulance Service, Northumbria Police and the Safe Newcastle Partnership, which funded the initiative.

The consortium is a collaboration between Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland primary care organisations, which fund NHS services in hospitals.