Military Hospital Surabaya

(Simpang) 1894 (KITLV 79868)

The large military hospital 2nd class at Surabaya was founded by Governor-General Daendels in 1809 in the quarter Simpang and was closed in 1923, when the buildings were  combined with the Central Government Hospital (CBZ). It 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 large hospital of Surabaya on average 434 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 Surabaya hospital is then 158 patients, whereas 1,938 have been admitted that year. The situation by the end of the year 1890 is a presence of 158 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 1898: 3,731. These figures were for the Surabaya hospital: 2,312 admittances and a presence on 31 December 1898 of 257 patients (See Koloniaal Verslag 1899, Addendum A).

G.H. von Faber published Nieuw Soerabaia (Soerabaia, Bussum, s.a.) about the period 1906-1931 and mentions the closure of the military hospital in 1923 (291).

Soerabaja was in the 1930s a Residency, regency and district of the province of East Java. It was at the same time the capital of that province. The capital itself had at that time 342,000 inhabitants, of whom 26,000 Europeans and 39,000 Chinese. It was the largest city after Batavia and the principal commercial place. It had a municipal council and a mayor. Hindu antiquities are found in the delta of the Kali Brantas and south of the town Modjokerto (ruins of Madjapahit). In the Brantas-delta oil is found. The port town had seen a lot of investments (Gonggryp 1934, 1319-1320).