Operational Context
Réunion concentrates its surgical capacity across three sites: the Félix Guyon University Hospital in Saint-Denis (600 beds, the largest hospital in the Indian Ocean), the CHU Sud in Saint-Pierre and the CHOR in Saint-Paul, opened in 2019. Between these facilities, the inter-hospital transport of organs and critical samples relies on a coastal road that is regularly compromised: cliff landslides, cyclonic swell, partial closures. In March 2006, a 35,000 m³ landslide killed three people and closed the road for a month. In February 2025, Cyclone Garance cut off roads and bridges across the entire island. In this context, time-critical medical transport that depends on the road takes on a structural risk.