The Koloniaal Verslag 1919 mentions progress in the fields of private and municipal or regional hospital care. Many local councils agreed on the establishment of modern hospitals with financial support from the national government. Building programmes were mentioned for the towns of Bandung, Sukabumi, Garut, Cirebon, Medan, Palembang and Makassar. In 1919 the building of a municipal hospital started at Palembang (Southern Sumatra).

Palembang was a Residency with 3 departments: the Palembang Lower countries; the Palembang Higher countries and Ogan-and Komering Hoeloe. (Hoeloe means the upper stream of a river and Hilir means the lower stream. Moeara means the estuary of the river. The Residency has a surface 2.5 x the surface of The Netherlands. The capital Palembang is part of the Palembanag Lower countries and is not situated on the seaside, but 83 km inland, at both sides of the Moesi river. The city had a municipality council and a mayor. The capital has 109,000 inhabitants, almost 1,900  Europeans and 15,800 Chinese (Gonggryp 1934, 1116).