A number of cardiac care nurses at St. Boniface Hospital have received layoff notices.

In a memo to all staff dated April 29, the hospital said it started handing out deletion notices to 51 nurses in the combined Cardiology and Coronary Care Unit.

The hospital is restructuring it into two separate units that require different staffing, to meet requirements from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

In 2011, the college stated it would no longer provide provisional accreditation through its Accredited Residency Program unless the hospital created a tertiary-based cardiac care unit.

The hospital submitted a business plan to the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and provincial government to receive funding.

The Cardiology Medicine and Post Recovery Unit and new Acute Cardiac Care Unit will begin accepting patients in mid to late June and be staffed by qualified critical care nurses and cardiologists.

The memo said all current staff will be eligible to apply for 39 positions on the new unit. However, current staff is ineligible to apply for 22 new positions due to training requirements.

The WRHA could not say whether extra training would be provided to current staff.

Those nurses can apply for the 39 positions, exercise bumping rights, apply for vacant positions at the hospital or take a layoff.

“Although there is no guarantee of getting a position in Cardiology, there are available positions for everyone who wants to continue working at St. Boniface Hospital,” the memo said.

The WRHA said it’s important to note that staff and the Manitoba Nurses Union were aware of the process throughout, and St. Boniface Hospital and the Cardiac Sciences Program worked with nurses affected by deletion notices.

“This was to ensure staff knew that despite the changes, there was a position available at St. Boniface Hospital for each and every nurse,” said Bronwyn Penner-Holigroski, WRHA Media Relations in an email to CTV News.