THERE can be no question over the importance of defibrillators in towns and villages across the district.

Their importance was highlighted in December 2016, when a man’s life was saved in Acomb thanks to the defibrillator in the village.

But the death of a man in Stonehaugh last month has brought up some issues with the devices – namely that they can be difficult to access in rural areas where mobile phone signal is patchy.

A code is required to open the cabinet that contains the defibrillator, which is given by a 999 operator.

But not all rural areas have a mobile phone signal.

Wark Parish Council chairman, Coun. Annie Hutchinson, said: “We do need a better mobile phone signal. We’ve tried to get a mobile phone mast in Stonehaugh, but it’s still in the very early stages.

“There is mobile signal in Stonehaugh, but it’s patchy and you have to move around to get it.

“We were going to put the defibrillator at the garage, but there’s definitely no mobile signal there.

“It just worries me with all these wagon drivers in isolated places and they need a better signal.

“How can they let so many people work without any means of contact?”

At Wark Parish Council meeting last month, it was suggested that the code should be given to the public, rather than just the guardians of the machine.

But the North East Ambulance Service said that the idea was dangerous.

A spokeswoman for NEAS said: “When placed in a locked cabinet, the code for a defibrillator is obtained via the 999 call operator.

“The code is purposefully not made available to members of the public as the defibrillator should only be used after dialling 999.

“It also ensures the cabinets are kept secure.”

Vice-chairman of the Stephen Carey Fund, Dougie McEwan, agreed that the codes cannot be given out so easily.

He said: “You can’t give out the code to more people because that’s how the defibrillator goes missing.

“Also, if someone starts using it without getting in touch with 999, who’s coming to help?”

The Stephen Carey Fund was set up in 2013 after Northumberland footballer Stephen Carey died from an undiagnosed heart condition during a match.

The charity was involved in a campaign alongside the Courant to provide public access defibrillators across the district.

The charity was saddened to hear of the death of the walker in Stonehaugh, but stressed it was an unusual case.

Dougie continued: “It’s absolutely unbelievable. It’s so sad that someone lost their life because of a bad phone signal.

“We’ve always been told that if you ring 999, it will connect you through the nearest mast. This is the first case like this that we’ve heard of.”

When calling 999, a mobile will connect to the strongest phone signal in the area, regardless of the network.

However, it seems that in Stonehaugh there is no signal for any network.

Stephnie Fathers, who was one of the first on the scene after the Stonehaugh walker’s heart attack, said: “Since a new mast was installed in Wark, several people have lost their O2 signal. But O2 are saying that there is nothing wrong.”

A spokeswoman from O2 responded: “Our engineers are looking into this inquiry in Stonehaugh.

“We can see that the mast is carrying call traffic as normal and there doesn’t appear to be any faults with the mast.”

On a separate issue, even with a phone signal, a call made outside a 500m radius of a defibrillator, means the device won’t show up on the operator’s system and the machine cannot be accessed.

The ambulance service explained the reasoning behind this rule.

The spokeswoman said: “Studies have shown that a shock given within three minutes of cardiac arrest provides the best chance of survival.

“Further studies have shown that immediate delivery of CPR, combined with early use of an automated external defibrillator by members of the public, gives a person in cardiac arrest the best chance of surviving.

“Defibrillation within three to five minutes can produce survival rates as high as 50- 70per cent.

“Members of the public will be given the code if the defibrillator is within 500m of the incident taking place.

“This is calculated based on the distance an average adult can walk briskly to retrieve it within the five minute window.”

Whilst the death of the Stonehaugh walker highlighted issues with the process of defibrillators in rural areas, the issues do not belong to NEAS or the defibrillators themselves.

Instead, it is the lack of mobile phone signals in rural areas which limit the opportunities to call for life-saving help.