POLICE are joining forces with hospital bosses to help crack down on drink-related violence.

Southampton University Hospital's NHS Trust has teamed up with Hampshire police and Southampton City Council to help identify hot spots for drink-fuelled crime in the city.

A scheme is to be launched over the next few months which will see staff at the Accident and Emergency department collate information on when and where assaults linked to drink have taken place.

This information will then be passed to police and community safety officers at the council to help build up a picture of where trouble is flaring across Southampton.

The project was piloted in Cardiff and representatives from the police, council and hospital have been on a fact finding missing to the Welsh capital to see the scheme working first hand.

Nurse registrar at South-ampton Hospitals NHS Trust Sarah Charters said: "The idea has been running in Cardiff for ten years, during which time they have seen a reduction of around a quarter in drink- related assaults.

"Ultimately this is all about making our pubs, clubs and bars safer. By asking a few extra questions we will be able to help build a picture of where any drink-related violence is occurring and pass that onto police, all completely anonymously.

"There will be no breach of patient confidentiality. The data will only be provided to establish details like where an incident happened, how many people were involved and whether any weapons were used."

A recent audit of the A&E department at Southampton General Hospital found seven assaults linked to alcohol over the course of a Thursday and Friday night.

Insp Trefor Lloyd said the information would be useful as not every alcohol-related incident was reported to the police. "This extra information will certainly help us to target policing in the right areas. In real terms this could mean extra patrols put in place in areas where the previous weekend there were a number of admissions to the hospital of injuries relating to alcohol."

Rachel Higgins from the City Council said: "It is about doing the work at this stage which will lead to a reduction in work in the long term."