IF moving house is one of the most stressful times in life, then moving hospital must be among the must difficult events to organise.
Scotland's largest health board is poised to vacate three separate hospitals, transferring around 1,000 patients into the new South Glasgow University Hospital.
All while continuing to treat emergency cases.
Extra manpower is being drafted in to double-run the sites as patients are transferred - ensuring medical and nursing care are available both on the new wards and in the emptying buildings. All leave has been "discouraged". The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) is providing a fleet of 16 vehicles dedicated to moving patients, leaving the usual 999 response team intact.
Dr David Stewart, medical director of acute services for health board NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and chair of the migration logistics group which is overseeing the move, said: "This operation has been many, many months in the planning. We have had very detailed discussion with all players in the move, including the Scottish Ambulance Service.
"We are very confident that this move will go well and that patient care will not be compromised in anyway. We will be engaging with patients and families in advance of the move so that everyone is very clear about what the arrangements will be."
The health board took advice from health authorities in Birmingham and Northern Ireland who have also overseen major hospital relocations, as they prepared their plans.
The three acute hospitals which are shutting, the Southern General, the Victoria Infirmary and the Western Infirmary will each close over the course of a weekend and there will be a two week gap between each one.
Planned surgery will stop at each site two days before the move, with some patients being offered operations at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital or private hospitals to prevent long queues for treatment building up.
Some patients are nevertheless likely to be in the critical care units and have to shift to the new SGUH. Dr Stewart said: "If we had a critically ill patient who was not fit to transfer, we would not transfer them until they were stable."
The accident and emergency departments will continue seeing patients until around 8am on the Saturday when they are due to shut. Once the doors have closed, patients who turn up in the wrong place will be greeted with a sign advising them where to go for treatment.
A drop of 561,000 leaflets to every household in the NHS GGC region will give people advanced warning about the new arrangements.
Patients who are being looked after on the wards when a hospital is shutting will be shuttled to the new SGUH by the ambulance patient transport service.
Dr Stewart said: "We have a team of clinicians responsible for looking after patients and making sure they depart the building and a team receiving the other side."
An extra 410 nursing shifts have been scheduled to support the move, using the staff bank and additional recruits. Around 100 extra portering and domestic staff shifts have also been organised.
It is understood the ambulance service has liaised with the police and planned the routes they will take to reach the new SGUH.
A spokesman for the ambulance service said: "A team of dedicated staff and vehicles has been established to undertake the moves and they will operate from a separate deployment centre in Glasgow, managed by a dedicated control centre in Paisley. This means that normal ambulance cover will be unaffected and remain in place to respond to 999 demand as usual.
"The vehicles dedicated to the move are not being taken from existing operational cover but come from those that are due to be decommissioned from the fleet, along with some new vehicles that will be used before they are due to replace existing resources."
The team in charge of this massive logistical undertaking, which includes closing three accident and emergency departments, have taken advice from health authorities in Birmingham and Northern Ireland where major hospital relocations have also been undertaken.
A timetable has been drawn-up which shutsdown each major acute hospital over a weekend, with a fortnight's gap between each closure.
First the Southern General closes its doors
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