Violent patients in hospitals face tougher legal action under a crackdown on anti-social behaviour unveiled yesterday by the government.

The health secretary, Alan Milburn, revealed that a special legal protection unit in his department would back NHS trusts in taking action to protect their staff. It would examine cases where the crown prosecution service had found insufficient evidence to warrant a prosecution.

This raises the prospect of the Department of Health supporting trusts in taking out private prosecutions. Mr Milburn said that in the past eight months alone more than 50 people had been prosecuted by trusts for violent or abusive behaviour.

The crackdown had to go hand in glove with Labour's wider programme to curb anti-social behaviour.