The garrison hospital of  the island Riau (Tanjung Pinang) was 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 Tanjung Pinang had on average 38 patients. 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.

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 hospital has been converted into an infirmary in the meantime with an average occupation rate  in 1890 of  10 patients, whereas 283  patients had been admitted that year. The situation by the end of the year 1890 is a presence of 8 patients.

About 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 1898:  57,071 and the number of present inpatients by the end of 1899: 3,731. These figures were for the infirmary: 142 admittances and a presence on 31 December 1898 of 7 patients (See Koloniaal Verslag 1900, Addendum A).

Tanjung Pinang was in the 1930s a division and subdivision of the Residency Riouw en Onderhoorigheden (Riau and Dependencies) with a principal town of the same name. The subdivision Tandjoeng Pinang had 42,000 inhabitants, of whom 350 Europeans and 15,000 Chinese. It comprises the islands Bintan, Rempang, Galang, Batam and Boelan and surrounding small islands, the Tambelan and Wates islands and the island of Pendjantan and the Pengikiislands. The principal town is Tandjoeng Pinang on Pulau Bintan, the largest island. It had 6,000 inhabitants, of whom 170 Europeans and 3,600 Chinese (Gonggryp 1934, 1382-1383).