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New radio show provides hospital patients with regional daily news

A weekly digest of news from a regional daily is now available to hospital patients on its patch.

Patients at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and Sussex Eye Hospital, in Brighton, will now hear news from the city’s daily The Argus by radio.

Talking Newspaper for the Blind has joined forces with Coastway hospital radio to provide the service called ‘The Argus Weekly News’ twice a day on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 9am and midnight.

TNB, which has been covering Brighton and Hove and the surrounding area for almost 40 years, collates articles from the paper every week, records them on CD and sends them out to the blind and partially sighted.

TNB's David Legge, left, and Coastway's Anthony Martin

TNB’s David Legge, left, and Coastway’s Anthony Martin

Coastway vice-chairman Anthony Martin said: “We did not have a scheduled news service so we thought this would be a good idea and help people keep updated and informed.

“As an optician I am aware a lot of partially sighted and blind people are not fully aware of the services that are available to them so hopefully this will help raise awareness. We chose 9am and midnight because we have noticed these tend to be the peak times that people turn on to listen to us.”

The Argus weekly news will be broadcast through the radio channel twice a day on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 9am and midnight.

TNB chairman David Legge said: “We are competing with things like the Internet and smart phones and other technology so we need to be looking what we can to find ways of getting the message out there. Joining with Coastway will hopefully get things out to a wider audience.”