PATIENTS are now able to hear a weekly digest of news from The Argus during their stay in hospital.

Talking Newspaper for the Blind (TNB) has joined forces with Coastway hospital radio to provide the service at the Royal Sussex County Hospital and Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton.

The 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.

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

Coastway vice-chairman said: “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.”

TNB chief editor David Legge said he hoped having the recordings broadcast at the hospital would help increase the number of people using the service.

He 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.”

TNB chairman Mark Linford said: “Our service is mainly used by older residents, often in their 80s or 90s. We also have one lady who is 101.

“They rely on us to provide an important link to what is going on.

“However there are a lot of other services now available to people with developments in technology and we need to be looking ahead and working out what our next steps will be.

Options being considered include using USB sticks and issuing listeners with USB players, which are simple to use, and working closely with other charities to see how the organisations can support each other.

For more details about TNB, call 01273 677755 and for more details about Coastway, visit coastway.org.uk.