Introduction
The provision of brief interventions on alcohol by primary care professionals has been proven to be both an effective and cost-effective way of reducing hazardous drinking however it has yet to be tested in community pharmacy settings. An extensive literature search has revealed no formal studies of pharmacy practice in relation to alcohol issues. This research is therefore novel as a feasibility study which aimed to establish a pilot project in which trained community pharmacists would initiate discussion of alcohol consumption with targeted pharmacy clients and screen, intervene or refer as appropriate.

Method
All pharmacies in Greater Glasgow were informed of the study. From the 17 interested pharmacies, a purposive sample of 8 was selected to include maximum possible variation in terms of pharmacy type, deprivation index, location, and local level of hospital admissions for alcohol misuse. A baseline evaluation was carried out to establish pharmacists' current knowledge and attitudes relating to alcohol prevention and education. This consisted of telephone interviews and two questionnaires: one based on the AAPPQ1 which measures attitudes towards working with hazardous drinkers; and another to rate pharmacists' knowledge and confidence in relation to established competencies in addressing alcohol issues. Interviews were transcribed in full and analysed inductively to identify themes. After a two day training course for pharmacists and one day of training for counter assistants, the eight pharmacies were asked to recruit clients over a three month period from July to October, 2005. Standardised protocols were prepared to screen clients for hazardous drinking using FAST (the Fast Alcohol Screening Tool), to guide the intervention and to record the whole process for each client. Clients were recruited from specific target groups as well as through posters highlighting the service.

Results
In the baseline evaluation, all of the pharmacists agreed that they were interested in the responses that can be made to alcohol-related problems but just one regularly raised the issue of drinking with clients. All felt it appropriate for community pharmacists to "opportunistically identify hazardous and harmful drinkers and to deliver a brief intervention" as recommended by SIGN Guideline 742 although they had some concerns about client sensitivities to being asked about their drinking. Most of the pharmacists were unable to correctly outline the recognised daily limits for alcohol consumption and none was familiar with the concept of brief interventions to address hazardous drinking. Of the 57 clients recruited to the study, 33 screened as drinking hazardously (58%) and 3 (5%) screened positive for harmful drinking.

Discussion
These preliminary data suggest that community pharmacists do not regularly and routinely enquire about alcohol with clients despite being interested in the topic but that it is feasible for trained community pharmacists to screen and intervene with clients on alcohol issues as recommended by SIGN. Both pharmacists and clients will be followed up qualitatively to ascertain their views as the feasibility and acceptability of the provision of such interventions. Further work is necessary to test the actual effectiveness of these interventions in this particular setting.