Report on Northumberland defibrillator tragedy being prepared after 999 call highlighted faulty device

The North East Ambulance Service is preparing a report on a tragic incident in a Northumberland village that saw a man die after a defibrillator was found not to be in working order.

Police and the ambulance service confirmed that emergency services were contacted on Friday, August 16 after a man collapsed in Allendale. First responders were directed to a defibrillator in the village, but the device was faulty and the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

It was initially reported by the emergency services that the first responders were directed to a defibrillator which was then found to be faulty. However, at Tuesday's meeting of Northumberland County Council's health and wellbeing scrutiny committee, Paul Brolly - a community resuscitation officer at NEAS - explained that the responders had been directed to a different device.

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In an emergency, a responder will dial 999 and be directed to the nearest defibrillator that is confirmed to be in a "rescue ready" state - meaning it has been inspected and passed as safe and ready to use.

Addressing councillors, Mr Brolly said: "I know a lot of you are thinking about the Allendale incident. The deployment from the call handler was to a different defibrillator, not that one - which wasn't rescue ready.

"That will come out in a further report."

According to the British Heart Foundation, defibrillators should have a designated “defib guardian” who regularly check the device to ensure it is ready for use in an emergency. Defibrillators are mapped by a system known as the Circuit, which can help ambulance services direct a bystander to the nearest one.

The committee's chairman, Coun Barry Flux, said it was vital that a proper system was in place to ensure guardians were correctly monitoring defibrillators.

He said: "Monitoring the guardian registered is key to this. We have all got community groups in our areas, sometimes they keep the same committee for generations and sometimes they change quite regularly and people forget what they're doing.

"The guardians can change and I think the key is keeping that register up to date and maybe doing a surprise visit and making sure there is somebody who is a guardian. It's about making sure that the regulations are there and people know what they're doing."

The comments came during a discussion on a report submitted by a task and finish group looking at community defibrillators across the county. The report recommended that the council work with NEAS to support registering defibs to The Circuit, enhance public awareness through training, and advocate for uniformity in defibrillator placement.