A defibrillator installed outside Ballymena & Causeway Credit Union on William Street, Ballymena.
Mid and East Antrim has 267 registered defibrillators, councillors have been told.
Michael Allen, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, gave a presentation to the borough council’s Neighbourhoods and Communities meeting at The Braid, in Ballymena, on Tuesday evening,
Mr Allen said fewer than one in ten people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and without any intervention “chances start to decrease”.
He also emphasised the importance of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) being carried out before defibrillation to increase chances of survival.
The need for defibrillator storage cabinets to be kept unlocked and in a location to enable access “24/7” was underlined.
“Defibrillators must be registered and accessible,” stated Mr Allen.
He reported that 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.
He stressed the location of a defibrillator is “not visible to the Ambulance Service” if it is not registered on The Circuit, the national defibrillator network, used by all 14 ambulance services across the UK.
It 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.
Patricia Allen, the council’s head of public protection, health and well-being, said the local authority would review the location of defibrillators at its facilities.
Carrick Castle Alderman Billy Ashe MBE expressed concern the “message about CPR is being forgotten” and it needs to be “reaffirmed”.
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.
The Community Resuscitation Strategy for Northern Ireland aims to increase survival for those who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by raising public awareness of recognition and the need for intervention as well as increasing access to CPR training and improve availability of and access to defibrillators.