Adult Congenital Cardiology

Providing treatment, care and support for adults born with congenital heart abnormalities.

Key points

The largest provider of services for Adult Congenital Heart Disease in Victoria.
An experienced team of professionals caring for adults born with congenital heart abnormalities.
Ongoing outpatient support and inpatient admission in event of acute illness, cardiac surgery, catheter interventions, electrophysiology and expert cardiovascular imaging.
Patients will need an initial referral from their general practitioner (GP) or other healthcare provider.

Patients need a referral from their GP or healthcare provider. Access referral information

What we do

Adult Congenital Cardiology is part of the Cardiology service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH). This is the largest provider of Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) services in Victoria and has a growing team of experts in all subspecialties, including:

cardiac imaging
catheter intervention
electrophysiology
pregnancy care
congenital cardiac surgery

Our partners

The team works closely with the Royal Women’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital.

Many patients are direct graduates from the Royal Children’s Hospital cardiology service as they reach adulthood.

Who can use our service

We accept referrals for patients who:

are aged 18 or over
have a congenital heart defect

We are a statewide service and accept patients outside of the RMH catchment, including interstate.

Clinic availability

The Adult Congenital Clinic is available for face-to-face or Telehealth appointments weekly on:

Tuesday mornings
Wednesday mornings
Friday mornings

For patients

For health professionals

Referrals

How to refer a patient

We accept GP and specialist referrals:

Use the RMH referral form or a template from your own system
Complete and fax your referral to Specialist Clinics (Outpatients) on (03) 9342 4234

We do not accept email referrals.

What to include in your referral

As outlined by the Department of Health, referral requests should include:

Patient demographic information
Referrer demographic information
Reason for referral
Presenting problem
Service(s) requested
Required referral information specified by statewide or local referral criteria
Current patient management
Impact of the problem on the patient
Name of the consultant and provider number (for Medicare clinics)
Investigation reports related to the referral

Urgent and after-hours support

Referrals are triaged based on priority. In an emergency, patients can go to the Emergency Department at any time.

For advice, urgent referrals and out of hours support, call The RMH Switchboard on (03) 9342 7000 to page our registrar on call.

View Dept of Health guidelines

HealthPathways Melbourne provides guidance on best practice assessment and management of common medical conditions, including when and where to refer patients.

Parkville Connect is a secure web-based portal providing GPs, specialists and other health professionals with information in the Parkville electronic medical record (EMR).

Links & documents

Australian National Standards of Care for Childhood-onset Heart Disease

The CoHD Standards are intended for use by the public (primarily patients and their families and carers), and by health professionals, healthcare service managers and planners, and relevant accreditation bodies.

HeartKids

HeartKids provide connection and care informed by lived-experience to ensure no one faces this journey alone

The Royal Children's Hospital: About Cardiology

The Cardiology Department at The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) provides a diagnostic and treatment service for patients referred with actual, or suspected, heart disease.

Need to change or cancel your appointment?

Do one of the following:

Access Health Hub to change the appointment yourself
Complete our online form and we'll change it for you
Call Specialist Clinics (Outpatients) on (03) 9342 7393 and we'll help you over the phone

Interpreters and cultural support

We provide qualified, professional interpreters to help you communicate with us at any time during your stay and at your clinic appointments.

Find out more about interpreters & cultural support