The first phase of major changes to Winnipeg hospitals officially takes effect next week.

At 8pm on October 2nd, Misericordia's urgent care centre will close. On October 3rd, Victoria Hospital will begin the conversion of its emergency department into an urgent care centre.

VP and chief nursing and health professionals officer for the WRHA Lori Lamont said intensive care services at Victoria will also be shifting to St. Boniface and Grace hospitals.

"We have a transition plan for those patients who are currently in the critical care unit at Victoria. We will have staff in place for about a week following the October 3rd closure to hopefully ensure that all of those patients who are there will be able to transition safely to an inpatient ward for care," she said at a press conference yesterday.

Lamont says Victoria Hospital will perform its last inpatient surgical procedure at the end of next week; it's surgical focus will shift to adult day surgery.

Lamont says they anticipate most people will make the right choices about which hospital to go to, but recognizing there will be some hiccups, they have built in some safety nets.

"There will be staff available at Misericordia that can see patients and redirect them, and provide care if it's that urgent. And as well, staffing changes in the emergency department at Victoria Hospital will actually transition after we make the change, so again, there will still be emergency physicians (and) emergency nurses available; they will be able to respond to people, whatever their needs are, that come in," said Lamont.

Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen was also a speaker at yesterday's press conference.

"We recognize that change is difficult. Big change is especially difficult. Big change is health care is really, really difficult and we did not undertake this lightly, but it was clear that change was and change is necessary," said Goertzen.

As for EMS service, Ryan Sneath, assistant chief of paramedic operations for the City of Winnipeg, said they have protocols that already do and will continue to dictate where patients go within the region when picked up by ambulance.

"Fundamentally, the fire/paramedic service for many years has had a priority destination protocol. That protocol has allowed us to take the most acutely ill patients to the centres that they're required to go to... those are long-standing protocols for us. This process has allowed us to further refine those protocols," said Sneath.

Phase one changes to be carried out over the next six weeks also include:

· the shift of mature women’s services from Victoria Hospital to Health Sciences Centre.

· the addition of critical care beds at Grace Hospital.

· the movement of geriatric-rehab patients from St. Boniface Hospital to Victoria Hospital.

· the opening of a special needs behavioural unit at Deer Lodge Centre.

The changes were announced in April of this year, following a report in 2015 by Dr. David Peachey, a health care consultant based in Nova Scotia. Phase two begins in spring 2018.