Besides providing training and monetary rewards, what more can be done to encourage nurses to go into the community-care sector?

To build a sustainable community nursing workforce, investments must be made to support, train and develop nurses to work in community-care, primary-care and long-term care settings.

Promote community care as a specialist practice to encourage knowledgeable and qualified specialist nurses to develop in leadership roles. New entrants to the profession should also be exposed to community-care and primary-care nursing as a career option equal to that of acute nursing.

Sangha Vandana

An elderly writer says he has had bad experiences in priority queues for seniors. What can be done to improve the situation?

The current configuration of supermarket checkouts is not ideal for priority queues. Customers who see an empty priority lane will head for it, and it makes sense for the cashier to serve them.

When an elderly customer comes along, how do you manoeuvre him to the head of the queue when the space is so narrow and probably filled with trolleys?

The layout of supermarket checkouts needs to be redesigned. Have two feeder queues: one normal, one priority. Priority customer gets the first checkout when it is available.

Judith Oliver

Make full use of technology to manage this better. Issue a Priority Queue Card to the elderly; they have to tap it in order to enter the priority lane. Every time a card is tapped, a barrier is lowered (like at MRT stations). If there is no cashier at the counter, a light beacon signals someone to come over.

Sean Hong

More can be done to increase awareness of priority queues or lanes for the elderly. Perhaps, assign staff to direct the seniors towards such queues and inform others to make way for them. We all have parents who are ageing and we all will grow old one day. Let us be more empathetic towards the needs of the elderly.

Joanne Ang

How can people be encouraged to use fewer plastic bags and containers?

Most stalls do not allow customers to use their own containers to store food for fear of breaching hygiene regulations.

That said, they can encourage this practice by shaving a good sum off their prices if consumers choose to use their own food containers. Other retailers selling non-food items can also follow suit.

Mohamad Salleh