THE Liberal Democrats have pledged to bring in minimum pricing for alcohol which could help curb Merseyside’s massive drink addiction.

Liverpool has the second highest rate of hospital admissions caused by alcohol in England, with 2,612 per 100,000 people hospitalised because of excess drinking.

Local health chiefs from Liverpool and Knowsley PCTs have come out in favour of minimum pricing, saying it would discourage excess drinking and therefore also reducing cancer rates and cardiovascular disease.

But the proposal is controversial, with critics saying it would unfairly punish moderate drinkers and the poor.

The party also promises to “integrate health and social care”, saving money and allowing older people to stay in their own homes for longer.

Bed blocking, or delayed discharge, is still a huge problem in the region – a Daily Post investigation revealed in December that some patients were staying in mental health wards for two years longer than necessary because the correct social care package was not available for them in Liverpool.

Local doctors have also mooted the idea of scrapping the barrier between health and social care to alleviate the problem, but the devil is in the detail and if done incorrectly experts say it could make a complex problem even worse.

Like the other two main parties, the Lib-Dems will prioritise preventative healthy measures, but will link payments to PCTs and GPs to the amount of prevention measures they instil.