LOCATION OF BLOOD DONATION FACILITIES : AN EVALUATION OF THE SINGAPORE BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICE

Abstract

A major constraint holding back potential donors from donating blood is the "inconvenience of opportunity". This factor plays a very important role in the decision-making process of a potential donor and ultimately determines whether the donation would be made or not. The level of convenience for donors is very much in the control of the Singapore Blood Transfusion Service primarily through the location and the operating hours of its blood donation centres. Therefore, this exercise attempts to use the location of blood donation facilities to provide greater convenience for donors so as to increase the donor pool and encourage more repeat donations. The population densities of the residential districts was the first consideration in deciding which part of the island should have blood donation centres. This basically seeks to increase the convenience for as large a population as possible as well as to justify for the resources and manpower that would be allocated to the donation centre. Upon determining the preferred estates for having blood donation centres, the Centre of Gravity method was used to identify an approximate location within each estate. From the calculated centre of gravity, several feasible sites were identified with a map and common sense. These sites were then evaluated on a set of criteria, which are mainly convenience incentives for donors, to find the most suitable place for situating the blood donation centre.