The Southeast Regional Health Authority (SERHA) has responded to concerns raised by the Opposition regarding last week’s promotion of recently graduated nurses.

The services of the nurses were utilized to offset staff shortages at hospitals in the region, due to a nurse sickout.

Those recently graduated nurses reportedly started their orientation last week.

This period of orientation was dubbed insufficient by Opposition Spokesman on Health, Dr. Alfred Dawes.

He told IRIE FM news yesterday that the promotion was unfair to the nurses, who were expected to assume primary responsibility for patient care without adequate supervision.

He stressed that it was a potentially dangerous practice, which jeopardized patients’ safety and the nurses’ careers.

In response, SERHA’s Regional Director, Errol Greene, clarified that the newly graduated nurses were not operating freely but were being supervised by senior staff.