The 4th class infirmary at Sambas (West Kalimantan) 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 at Sambas had on average 4 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 average occupation rate of the Sambas infirmary is then 1 patient, whereas 56 have been admitted that year. The situation by the end of the year 1890 is a presence of 1 patient.

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 Sambas infirmary: 62 admittances and no patients present on 31 December 1899 (See Koloniaal Verslag 1900, Addendum A).

Sambas was in the 1930s a selfgoverning landscape and subdepartment of Singkawang of the Residency Westerafdeeling van Borneo (West Kalimantan). The subdepartment Sambas had 68,500 inhabitants, of whom 65 Europeans and 4,300 Chinese. The Landscape is situated on the river Soengai Sambas with an estuary of 1.5 km. The principal town Sambas is also situated on the river. The population has Dajak, Malay and Javanese population groups and Buginese (Gonggryp 1934, 1264).