Résumé
Background: National Blood Centre is an institution under the Ministry of Health Malaysia responsible for ensuring adequate and safe blood supply is always available for hospitals in Malaysia. Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, collection from the blood donation campaign was 80% of the total collection. However, during the pandemic collection from blood donation campaigns has reduced to almost only 60%. Identifying the issues is important because tackling these issues reduce barriers that impede people from becoming blood donors and increase the likelihood of blood donation campaigns organizers to continue supporting blood donation campaigns which are important for the sustainability of donations from regular blood donors. Aims: The purpose of this study is to better understand the issues faced at blood donation campaigns specifically related to location, equipment, and staff-related issues in view of paving the way to solving the issues later for the betterment of the service in terms of future intervention. Methods: This was a cross-sectional prospective study using a feedback form filled out by Blood Donation Campaign managers to give their input on the issues encountered during blood donation campaigns. The duration of this study was 4 months from 1st of September 2021 to 31st of December 2021 involving 711 blood donation campaigns organized by the National Blood Centre with blood donation campaign organizers using the purposive sampling method. These feedbacks were mainly categorized into three main categories involving location, equipment, and staff-related issues. The feedback form is given to Blood Donation Campaign managers on the day of the blood donation campaigns, with the feedback to be filled during campaign progress and to be returned at the end of the blood donation campaign on the same day. The outcome of this feedback is calculated by pointer system-where 0 = no issues, 1 = issue exist. Results: A total of 240 issues were highlighted involving 123 of the 711 blood donation campaigns between the 1 September 2021 to the 31 December 2021. 81.25% of the issues were due to blood donation campaign location and environment, 13.75% of the issues were due to staff issues and 5.0% of the issues were due to equipment issues. 24.62% of the issues were related to the lack of the locations' visibility and accessibility to potential blood donors. 22.05% of the issues related to the blood donation campaign locations were due to unsuitable environment temperature, which is vital for preserving the blood cold chain. 13.33% of the issues were due to staff issues such as failure to be prepared for departure on time. Unexpectedly high number of donors turn up contributed to 4.49% of issues related to inadequate equipment (blood bag and rations). Summary/Conclusions: This cross-sectional prospective study analysis has helped in identifying issues encountered at blood donation campaigns and pave the way for further intervention for the betterment of services needed. Choosing a proper location and adequate promotional materials may be useful in addressing visibility issues in recruiting potential donors. Unsuitable environment temperature can be overcome by bringing additional fans or air humidifiers to bring down the temperature around the campaign location. A possible solution to inadequate blood bags and ration is by bringing additional blood bags to blood donation campaigns that are going to be held in high population areas.