David Cameron edges towards minimum price curb on binge drinking Prime Minister David Cameron visited the Royal Victoria Infirmary Hospital in Newcastle to highlight the cost of alcohol to the NHS. Photograph: Scott Heppell/PA Deep discounting of alcohol by supermarkets and convenience stores is fuelling Britain's binge-drinking culture, David Cameron conceded, as he came under intense political and health lobby pressure to adopt a minimum price for alcohol. Cameron was visiting a hospital in the North east one of the worst areas for alcohol related NHS admissions. The prime minister is temperamentally opposed to regulatory solutions to health issues, favouring so-called nudge economics, but has acknowledged that the ban on smoking in public places has worked. Some of his aides believe he is now undergoing a similar conversion over the introduction of a minimum price for alcohol. He was accused by Labour of "panic" in the face of a growing problem. Cameron said alcoholism was having a huge impact on A&E departments, which every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night were overrun by drunk and incapable people. We need to do more to tackle this problem. We are going to look at the issue of alcohol pricing. I'm quite convinced there is deep discounting of alcohol in supermarkets and convenience stores and that it is causing part of the problem. We need to take action right across the board. We also need to look at the issue of pricing. This is a national problem. The government has said it will address the sale of alcohol at below cost price, but has not yet said it will support a minimum alcohol price per unit. Cameron said local councils had powers to close down bars that are causing a problem, adding that he wanted the police to look at special alcohol police cells. In the past year there were 200,000 hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions, while the number of people treated for extreme drunkenness more than doubled to 18,500. The prime minister is examining Scottish moves to outlaw the sale of alcohol at less than 45p a unit, as well as a plan to link taxes on drinks to their strength. The precise level of a minimum price would have disparate effects and affect various income groups in sharply different ways. Balance, the north-east of England's alcohol office, said demand for alcohol had to be controlled - as it was in the past by pricing and licensing hours. Sue Taylor, partnerships manager for Balance, said: "It's no secret that our region has a huge problem with alcohol misuse. We have the highest rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions and the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths for men in the UK. Pocket money prices, widespread availability and heavy promotion increase alcohol consumption. Innovative local solutions are helpful but this problem is so big that we need to introduce preventative measures at a population level. These are the measures that must be part of the upcoming alcohol strategy and include a minimum price per unit of alcohol. Research by Balance shows 56% of people in the north-east support a minimum price per unit of alcohol, an increase of 7% from 2010. The study also shows that: A third (35%) of people in the North east think supermarket alcohol is too cheap against just over one in ten (13%) who think it is too expensive. Half (53%) would pay more for alcohol if it led to societal benefits (up 6% from 2010). The shadow health minister, Diane Abbott, said: "David Cameron's comments smell of panic. The government's position is a real mess because we have a Prime Minister at war with his own health secretary about what to do, when what's needed is proper leadership. David Cameron has got to resist gimmicks and focus on real action. Health experts, schools and even David Cameron's MPs are raising the alarm bells about the direction this government has taken the country on public health, because David Cameron and Andrew Lansley have got drinks companies writing government policy for them. It is creating a ticking time bomb. There is a vacuum where there should be full and proper strategy to tackle the rising tide of harm caused by binge-drinking seen in our high-streets and hospitals. The chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, Paul McKeever, said: "The Prime Minister's suggestion of 'putting more police on patrol in hospitals' to help deal with problems of drunken and anti-social behaviour would be a laudable solution if the police service wasn't struggling to meet the current workload. We are already trying to cope with 20% cuts to our budgets imposed on us from the Prime Minister and his Government. We simply do not, and will not, have the police officers or the resources to assist the health service with protecting properties such as hospitals. Ian Gilmore, the Royal College of Physicians' special adviser on alcohol and the chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said Cameron "rightly identifies cheap drink as a major factor and I encourage him to join Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland in meeting this head on with a minimum unit price for alcohol."