The garrison hospital 3rd class at Riouw (Riau) is mentioned in the publication of D. Schoute “De Geneeskunde in Nederlandsch-Indie in de 19e eeuw”, GTNI 75 (1935) 10, 827. The article refers to a survey of  all the military facilities in 1867 . In that year the garrison  hospital of Riau had on average 38  inpatients. The hospital was part of the Military Medical Service (MGD),  which in 1867 (the year of the survey of all military facilities) managed a total of 79 facilities (3 large military hospitals, 35 garrison hospitals and 41 infirmaries) with on average 4,244 occupied beds. The military hospital is indicated on the map of the Reede Riouw of the Grote Atlas van Nederlands Oost Indie (p. 135).

Some 25 years later, the Annex D of the Koloniaal Verslag 1890 reports a total  of 3,358 inpatients by the end of that year, whereas 52,631 patients have been admitted for the whole of the Netherlands Indies. The report concerns 28 military hospitals, 54 ziekenzalen (infirmaries) and 6 specialized facilities. The Riau hospital has been converted into an infirmary at Tandjong Pinang, the capital of the Riau archipelago, the number of admittances of the Riau infirmary is then 283 patients. The situation by the end of the year 1890 is a presence of 8 patients.

In 1900 the situation of military health facilities was: 30 hospitals, 56 infirmaries and 5 specialized facilities, such as reconvalescent centers and leprosy asylums. The total number of admittances was in 1899: 57,071 and the number of present inpatients by the end of 1899: 3,731. These figures were for the Riau infirmary: 142 admittances and a presence on 31 December 1899 of 14 patients (See Koloniaal Verslag 1900, Addendum A).

Riau and Dependencies (Riouw enOnderhoorigheden) was in th 1930s a Residency divided into two departments : Tandjong Pinang and Indragiri. The capital of the Residency was at Tandjong Pinang. The Residency had 300,000 inhabitants of whom 600 Europeans and 39,000 Chinese. The department Indragiri lies on the shore, while Tandjong Pinang comprises an area of more than 1,000 islands, together the Riau and Lingga Archipelago and the Poelau toedjoeh archipelago. These islands were mainly inhabited by Malayans (Of the Malay peninsula)  and Buginese, mutually strongly mixed, further other population groups could be found, such as the Orang Laoet, Bangkanese and Palembangese, Javanese on the companies and most strongly present the Chinese population groep. In the beginning of the 17th century the Dutch founded a factory at Djohor. In 1641 Malaka was conquered on the Portuguese with the help of the Sultan of Djohor. In the 18the century Buginese established at Djohor, skirmishes resulted and in 1683 a new contract was designed between VOC and the Sultan of Djohor. After the London Tractate of 1824, the Realm of Djohor was divided into a Sultanate on the Malay peninsula, called Djohor and a Sultanate Riau, Lingga and Dependencies. As the sultan appeared to be incapable and unreliable, from 1911 to 1913 the Resident G.F. de Bruijn Kops replaced the sultan and afterwards the Residency was put under direct rule, as the continuance of selfgovernment had proven to be undesirable (Gonggryp 1934, 1236-1238).