Happy hours and the sale of cheap alcohol should be banned, doctors said yesterday as thousands of British students prepared for Freshers’ Week.

The College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) is calling for tighter controls on alcohol advertising, including a health warning on all bottles and cans.

Experts at the college said experience showed the number of university-goers admitted to A&E rises significantly during Freshers’ Week. They believe happy hours should be banned because they encourage youngsters to drink too much too early in the evening.

John Heyworth, president of the CEM, said the college, which supports minimum pricing, wants all door and bar staff to receive compulsory training so that those who are already drunk cannot continue to buy alcohol.

He said: “Our message is simple – let’s all enjoy alcohol sensibly. We don’t want to stop anyone from having fun, especially during Freshers’ Week, which is a time for making friends and social integration.

“But we also want to reinforce the message that drinking in moderation will prevent a whole host of unwanted consequences, from health impacts to financial implications and the heavy burden on our ambulance services and hard-pressed emergency departments.”

Figures published last month by the North West Public Health Observatory showed there were 945,469 admissions to hospital for alcohol-related harm in England in 2008-09.

And a study from the NHS Confederation and Royal College of Physicians earlier this year said Britain’s growing culture of heavy drinking is placing an “unsustainable burden” on the NHS, costing £2.7 billion a year.

It said excessive drinking had doubled in the past five years, and called for a change in society’s attitudes towards drink.

The CEM said yesterday it also wants to see a clamp-down on drink-driving, including banning the sale of alcohol in petrol stations.