One in four council defibrillators inaccessible to public in Mid and East Antrim, report reveals

Just three-quarters of defibrillators owned by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council are publicly available, a report to councillors said.

The report presented to the council’s Neighbourhood and Communities Committee, at a meeting in The Braid, Ballymena, on Tuesday evening, indicated the local authority owns a total of 40.

Of these, 75 per cent can be accessed publicly with the remainder inaccessible due to “a combination of planned replacement, facilities closed/under refurbishment” with others “unavailable” due to a requirement to remain exclusively within a facility such as poolside at a leisure centre.

The report also noted 72 per cent of council-owned devices are registered on ‘The Circuit’, the national defibrillator network.

The borough council says “addressing this gap remains a priority” and “new and updated registrations will continue to be progressed as quickly as possible”.

“Officers will also prepare a plan for identifying further council devices for relocation or replacement over the next 30 months,” the report said.

It was stated defibrillators at Ballee Community Centre, Ballymena and Sandy Bay Centenary Pavilion, Larne, have been relocated to external cabinets. Both are registered.

A new location is being considered for the defibrillator at the visitor centre at Carnfunnock Country Park, outside Larne, when refurbishment of the attraction commences.

Councillors have been told previously the location of a defibrillator is “not visible to the Ambulance Service” if it is not registered on The Circuit.

The committee was informed by Michael Allen, community resuscitation team manager, from Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, during a presentation in February, fewer than one in ten people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and without any intervention “chances start to decrease”.

“Defibrillator storage cabinets should be kept unlocked and in a location to enable access 24/7. Defibrillators must be registered and accessible,” Mr Allen stated.

This enables ambulance services to locate the nearest defibrillator when 999 is called in response to a cardiac arrest. A defibrillator is visible to ambulance services 60 seconds after registering. If a defibrillator isn’t registered on The Circuit, the ambulance service can’t see it

Overall, Mid and East Antrim has 267 registered defibrillators.

Mr Allen said 83 per cent of registered defibrillators are “emergency ready” in Mid and East Antrim with full access to 150 of the portable life-saving devices and 111 storage units are locked.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service says there are 1,400 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Northern Ireland each year and every minute without CPR and defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by up to ten per cent.