I REFER to the Ground Zero report 'They wore lab coats in the canteen' (my paper, Feb 4).

I would like to highlight something on a similar note.

My overseas friends have noticed that nurses in Singapore go shopping in their uniforms after work.

Aren't the nurses taking whatever germs or viruses from the hospitals to public places and vice versa, they ask?

Nurse friends from Hong Kong tell me they have to change and leave their uniforms at the hospital to be washed, at the end of their shift.

Work shoes are also not allowed out of the hospital.

Hong Kong hospitals may be right in their practice.

Didn't we learn any lesson from the Sars outbreak a few years ago?

I have a doctor friend who would take a shower immediately after she reaches home before touching her children.

Her clothes are washed separately and sterilised.

I hope the Ministry of Health would address the issue of healthcare workers wearing their hospital uniforms to public places.

Ms Siew May Har Patricia