A TEST Valley borough councillor is calling for more to be done to make residents aware of where defibrillators are located across Andover.

The news comes after Professor Charles Deakin, divisional medical director at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS), warned that two-thirds of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the UK have no signage at their locations and few have any guidance directing people to them.

He has now helped develop new international guidelines setting out a standard protocol for adequate signage and illumination to improve public access.

READ MORE: Medical expert Professor Charles Deakin criticises lack of signage for life-saving defibrillators

St Mary's ward councillor Iris Andersen has told the Advertiser that more needs to be done.

She said: "Everybody should know where the defibrillators are. It is important to people's lives and there should be either a list that should go on a website, and it is essential that there are lists in doctor surgeries so people can see where these defibrillators actually are.

"If you ask someone where there is a defibrillator, I mean they would not know. We should all know the designated point to where they are, it is really important and save people's lives."

She said it is important that lists should go on social media websites and even be put up around council buildings.

She added: "No one knows when they might need one and these save so many people's lives."

As previously reported, Prof Deakin said: “Early defibrillation is a critical link in the chain of survival for those who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospital and ensuring rapid location of public access AEDs decreases the time it takes to deliver the first shock and ultimately improves survival.

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“However, when we assessed the quality of public AED signage in Hampshire, we found this to be extremely poor, limiting the effectiveness of the devices and leaving the public playing a deadly game of hide and seek, wasting valuable seconds in bringing life-saving treatment to the patient.

“This is reflective of the picture not just in the rest of the UK, but also many other countries including the US and is one of the reasons that survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remains so poor.”