More than half of the nurses at Grace and Victoria Hospital will experience job impacts as part of the health care overhaul.

The changes will see 500 nurse positions deleted at the two hospitals as services are consolidated.

Deletion notices will also go out to 12 nurses at Misericordia Health Centre.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority says these are not layoffs, as jobs will be available within the system for all nurses, many of them at the same hospital.

"We want to focus our staff's attention on the end state, because the end state is an opportunity for every nurse,” said Karlee Blatz from the WRHA.

The WRHA says there are currently 400 vacancies in the system and there will be additional ER jobs in the future, plus new positions added at Grace and Victoria Hospital.

The Manitoba Nurses Union says it will hold the health authority’s feet to the fire on the plan that there will be jobs for all nurses.

"I'm not a hundred per cent confident but I will be holding the WRHA to the promise that there will be,” said MNU President Sandi Mowat.

In April, the province announced the closing of three city emergency rooms, while centralizing other services. Health officials say the goal is to group specific staff and patients together to find the right staffing levels. The result, they say, will be better care and less sick leave and overtime for nurses.