Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is the NHS Wales organisation responsible for planning and delivering healthcare for the people of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. It serves a resident population of roughly 472,400 people, and for a number of specialist services it cares for patients from a much wider area across south and mid Wales. The board was formed on 1 October 2009 through the bringing together of three local NHS organisations, creating a single body that runs hospitals, community services and public health functions across the two areas. For residents of the Vale of Glamorgan, including Barry, Penarth, Cowbridge, Llantwit Major and Dinas Powys, this is the body behind their local hospital care, community nursing, health visiting and many of the clinics they attend.

The health board runs several hospitals. The University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff is one of the largest hospitals in the United Kingdom and acts as the headquarters for clinical services, providing major emergency, surgical and specialist care. University Hospital Llandough, on the edge of Penarth in the Vale, provides a range of medical, surgical, mental health and rehabilitation services and is closely associated with the board's work in the Vale of Glamorgan. Barry Hospital is a community hospital on Colcot Road in the Colcot area of Barry, offering around sixty beds together with outpatient clinics and community based care for local people who do not need the full facilities of an acute hospital. Other sites include Cardiff Royal Infirmary, St David's Hospital and Rookwood Hospital in Cardiff, each with particular roles in older people's care, rehabilitation and outpatient services.

Alongside its hospitals, the board oversees a network of health centres, with around seventeen across the area, and a broad set of community services. These include district nursing, health visiting, school nursing, therapy services and care that helps people remain at home or return home safely after a hospital stay. The board also holds a range of specialist services used by the whole of Wales, such as renal medicine, paediatrics, neurology and bone marrow transplantation. As a university health board it works in partnership with universities in Cardiff, supporting the training of doctors, nurses and other health professionals and contributing to medical research, which is one reason the word university appears in its name.

The official website at cavuhb.nhs.wales is the main online point of contact. Residents use it to find information about the board's hospitals and health centres, to look up departments and services, and to access guidance on how to be referred or how to attend appointments. The site carries advice on accessing urgent and emergency care, information for patients and visitors, and details for people who want to give feedback, raise a concern or make a complaint. It also publishes news, board papers and information about how the organisation is run and held to account. For anyone building a business directory of public health bodies, the board's website is the authoritative reference because it links to verified service pages rather than informal listings, and it sets out the official switchboard and contact routes.

The board's administrative headquarters is at Woodland House on Maes-y-Coed Road in Llanishen, Cardiff, and the main switchboard number is 029 2074 7747. While the headquarters sits in Cardiff, the board's services reach directly into the Vale of Glamorgan through Barry Hospital, University Hospital Llandough near Penarth, and community teams and health centres across the towns and villages of the borough. Patients travelling to the larger hospitals can reach the University Hospital of Wales and University Hospital Llandough by bus and car, and both sites have car parking, although parking at busy acute hospitals can be limited and is best planned in advance. Barry Hospital is more locally focused and is reachable from across the Vale by local bus services and by road.

It is important to understand how to use NHS services appropriately, and the board's website explains this clearly. For life threatening emergencies, the advice is to call 999 or attend an emergency department. For urgent but non emergency concerns, NHS 111 Wales provides telephone and online advice and can direct people to the right service. Routine care usually begins with a general practice, pharmacy, dentist or optician, many of which are independent contractors that work with the health board rather than being run directly by it. This distinction matters: a patient's own GP surgery is the usual first point of contact for most health needs, and the health board's role is to plan and provide the wider hospital and community services that sit behind primary care.

As with all parts of the NHS, the board faces real pressures. Demand for emergency care, planned surgery and mental health support is high, and waiting times for some treatments can be long. The board publishes information about its performance and about steps being taken to improve access, and it works with the Vale of Glamorgan Council and other partners on projects such as health and wellbeing hubs that aim to bring services closer to communities. Patients are encouraged to attend appointments they have booked, to let services know if they cannot attend, and to use the most appropriate service for their needs so that emergency departments are kept free for those who genuinely need them. These are practical limitations that affect every health system, and being aware of them helps residents get the right care more quickly.

The board's work extends well beyond hospital wards. It provides community and primary care services, mental health and learning disability services, and public health functions that aim to prevent illness as well as treat it. University Hospital Llandough, near Penarth, has a particular role in mental health, rehabilitation and care for older people, and it brings a number of these services together on one site close to the Vale. St David's Hospital and other sites in Cardiff support rehabilitation and care for older people, while Cardiff Royal Infirmary provides outpatient and specialist clinics. Community teams of nurses, therapists and support workers visit people in their own homes and in residential settings, helping patients to recover after illness or surgery and to manage long term conditions without unnecessary stays in hospital.

Residents can engage with the board in a number of ways beyond attending appointments. The website explains how to give feedback, raise a concern or make a formal complaint, and how to request access to personal health records. People can find information about volunteering, about the charity that supports the health board's hospitals, and about how to take part in consultations on changes to services. The board is overseen by a board of executive and independent members who meet in public, and its papers and meeting dates are published so that the way decisions are made is open to scrutiny. For carers and family members, the site provides guidance on visiting, on supporting a patient through treatment, and on the services available in the community after discharge.

Because the organisation is large and spread across many sites, knowing where a particular service is based saves time. The website allows residents to look up individual hospitals and health centres, with their locations and the services offered at each, so that patients attend the right site for their appointment. This is especially useful in an area like the Vale of Glamorgan, where some services are delivered locally at Barry Hospital and others require a journey to Cardiff or to Llandough. A business directory entry that links to the official health board website gives patients a single, verified gateway to all of this, rather than leaving them to piece together contact details from unofficial sources.

For residents of the Vale of Glamorgan, the health board is the organisation behind a large share of their healthcare, from the community beds and clinics at Barry Hospital to the specialist and emergency services in Cardiff and at Llandough near Penarth. The official website is the most reliable source for current information on services, visiting arrangements, feedback and contacts, and the main switchboard provides a route to departments across the organisation. Including Cardiff and Vale University Health Board in a business directory of public bodies gives patients and carers a verified link to NHS hospital and community services for Cardiff and the Vale, together with a clear switchboard number and a single trustworthy starting point when they need to find their way through a large health system.

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