The SAMU 24 emergency medical service is responsible for coordinating urgent medical response operations throughout the Dordogne department in southwestern France, operating from the Centre Hospitalier de Périgueux. As part of the nationwide French Service d’Aide Médicale Urgente network, SAMU 24 manages emergency medical dispatch, physician-led interventions, and critical patient transport across one of France’s largest and most rural departments. The service plays a particularly important role in providing rapid access to emergency care for isolated communities spread across heavily forested landscapes and distant countryside areas where road transfer times can be significantly prolonged. Through its centralized medical regulation center, emergency physicians coordinate ground ambulances, intensive care response units, and aerial medical transport missions to stabilize patients and organize transfers toward specialized treatment facilities.
A major modernization milestone came with the introduction of an Airbus H135 helicopter, replacing older aircraft that faced operational limitations during extreme summer temperatures and adverse weather conditions. Configured as a flying intensive care unit, the H135 significantly improved operational reliability, patient comfort, and rapid response capabilities throughout the Dordogne region. Permanently based at the Périgueux hospital helipad, the helicopter enables SAMU 24 medical crews to conduct both primary emergency rescue missions and secondary inter-hospital intensive care transfers, dramatically reducing transport times for severe trauma, stroke, and cardiac patients requiring advanced treatment at larger university hospital centers such as those in Bordeaux. Through continuous technological and organizational modernization, SAMU 24 remains a vital healthcare lifeline for rural southwestern France.
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