ABOUT a third of the beds in Devizes Community Hospital are unable to receive Devizes Hospital Radio, or any other radio station.

It is thought the situation arose after work was done on the cabling at a ward at the hospital before Christmas. The Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust, which runs Devizes Community Hospital, says it would cost £10,000 to put the matter right.

Christopher Cooke of Devizes Hospital Radio said: "This is very sad. Quite often people recuperating in the ward cannot read or watch TV because of eyesight problems and they just have to lie there doing nothing.

"I saw a heart-breaking situation when I was in the hospital checking the equipment the other day. An elderly gentlemen reached for the headphones and put them on, but I could see he wasn't hearing anything."

The hospital radio is currently trying to raise money to replace the mixing desk at its studios in the Wyvern Club in Church Walk. The desk originally came from Capital Radio and is thought to date from the 1960s.

The cost of new equipment is put at £3,000. The hospital radio committee has organised a concert by the folk band The Yetties at the Corn Exchange on April 12 at 7.30pm. Tickets are on sale at Devizes Books on (01380) 725944.

The voluntary radio station, which has won national awards for its output, broadcasts to Anzac House and Southfield residential homes in Devizes as well as Devizes Hospital itself. It is trying to find finance to put cables into other residential homes in the area.

A spokesman for Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust said she could not say how the reception was affected at the hospital but confirmed that it would cost £10,000 to repair it.

The trust is currently facing an £11 million deficit and among the economies being looked at is closing Devizes Hospital and selling the land off for housing.

She said: "With the trust's current financial problems there is no way we can find £10,000 spare in our budgets. We would not stop local organisations from trying to raise the money, but with the uncertainty about the future of Devizes Hospital, we wouldn't want this used as another thing for the press to beat us over the head with."