From 31 January 1897 Raden Salim was appointed as dokter djawa with station Pemalang. In 1909 he was still occupying this post, but it was not clear if at that time a so-called ‘inlandsch hospitaal’ (indigenous hospital) existed at Pemalang. From 1927 we know from the Regeeringsalmanak of that year,that there  was a ‘Gouvernments Burgerlijke Ziekeninrichting (Government Civil Hospital) or shortened GBZ functioning at Pemalang (Pekalongan). It was a rather small hospital as it was only accorded to nurse class 4 patients (nursing tariff f 1,50 per day). See the Annexe to the Staatsblad van Nederlandsch-Indie (NI Statutebook) no. 11446 of 30 August 1927.

In the 1930s Pemalang was a regency, district and subdistrict with an eponymous capital of the Residency Pekalongan in the province of Central Java. The regency had 523,000 inhaabitants of whom 531 Europeans and 2,900 Chinese (Gonggryp 1934, 1157).