The military infirmary 1st class Padang Sidempuan (Tapanuli) 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 infirmary of Padang Sidempuan had on average 17 inpatients. The infirmary 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 average occupation rate of the infirmary at Padang Sidempuan is then 15 inpatients, whereas 171 have been admitted that year. The situation by the end of the year 1890 is a presence of  11 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 infirmary at Padang Sidempuan: 113 admittances and a presence on 31 December 1899 of 10 patients (See Koloniaal Verslag 1900, Addendum A).

Padang Sidempuan was in the 1930s a department with a capital of the same name, part of The Residency of Tapanoeli, ruled by an assistant-Resident. The department has 277,000 inhabitants, of whom 155 Europeans and 1185 Chinese. The capital itself has 5,900 inhabitants ofwhom 40 Europeans and 437 Chinese and is situated at a level of 300 meters on the autoroute from Padang to Medan.