About the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) service

The South Wales Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) Service is based in the University Hospital of Wales and also attends clinics in other hospitals in south and west Wales.

We are building and developing new clinics for ACHD patients across south Wales, aiming to bring care closer to their homes.

Our ACHD team consists of Specialist Cardiology Consultants, Clinical Nurse Specialists, experienced Physiologists and a dedicated ACHD team co-ordinator. We work together to provide care for adults (aged 16 years and over) with Congenital Heart Disease across Wales.

The Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) service is a success story. It is estimated that across England and Wales between five and nine in every 1,000 pregnancies are associated with some form of CHD. Ever more people born with CHD are surviving well into adulthood.

While the number of adults with CHD is known to be increasing there is no reliable estimate of the number of people living with CHD.

However, we do know that in the future we are likely to see the service moving from one that is focused on children, to one that is treating a growing number of young people and adults, who will continue to have often complex health needs.

The consequent need to expand the Welsh service to treat people in a more timely manner and closer to their homes has been recognised.