Local pharmacies are able to offer health advice as well as medicines, Swindon’s top pharmacist has said.

It comes as practices celebrate Ask Your Pharmacist Week.

Nick Jephson, owner of Wroughton’s Jephson Pharmacy and chairman of the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Pharmaceutical Committee, said that visiting a pharmacist was a good alternative to going to your GP for minor ailments like coughs and cuts.

He said: “Patients can come in and rather than seeing their GP, I will examine them, take a history and if, for example, they’ve got a cut that’s become infected, I can give them antibiotics.”

Many pharmacies are able to offer the flu jab, health advice, basic treatments and repeat prescriptions – as well as over-the-counter and prescription medicines.

This week marks Ask Your Pharmacist Week. Its aim is to encourage people to find out more about the services offered by pharmacies.