GLASGOW'S new £842million "superhospital" is taking shape.

As this exclusive preview reveals the 'footprints' of both the adult and children's hospitals are now in place, showing the sheer scale of the building.

With less than two years until the South Glasgow Hospital Campus is completed, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde say the project is bang on schedule and on budget.

The Evening Times was given a "progress" tour of the site, which will be one of Europe's biggest hospitals, when it is completed on February 2015.

The campus will feature an 1109-bed adult hospital and 256-bed children's hospital with maternity services.

All acute services will be transferred to the Govan site from the Western Infirmary, Yorkhill, Stobhill Hospital and the Victoria Infirmary.

Alan Seaborne, Project Director, said: "For a project of this size it couldn't really be going better.

"This is a publicly funded project, it's not PPI, so everyone is focused on how the well the hospital is going to run."

With work on the main buildings at an advanced stage, the internal fit-out is now progressing.

The first area nearing completion is the ward which will care for the most seriously ill patients. Once fitted out, the 59-bed critical care ward will be used as a model for other wards.

The health board say patient visibility and access to natural light have been prioritised in the design.

Every design decision has been carefully thought out to maximise care and aid navigation around the hospital and promote a healing environment for patients.

David Hall, technical advisor, said: "This ward is the benchmark. It will be used as a model to make sure we get all the processes right."

To get an idea of the scale of the hospital, project bosses are making decisions about 250,000 different lines of equipment. There are 2500 toilets. The cabling required to run the hospital, David jokes, could "go round the world" several times.

Every floor will be colour coded to help patients navigate around the massive site.

The hospital's £90m state-of-the-art lab is already up and running with the adult and children's hospitals due to open in Summer 2015.

One of the most striking features of the new hospital is that every patient will have a single room.

In the tower of the hospital, which will house the adult wards, every room has an outside view.

Peter Moir, Deputy Project Director, said: "We have 96 clinical groups working with us to design every detail.

"It's about light and openness, being able to observe patients. The hospital has been designed with this in mind.

"Staff have clear vision of every patient.

"When you get to the tower of the adult hospital, every window looks out, nothing looks inward. It gives patients a link to the outside world."

caroline.wilson@ eveningtimes.co.uk