Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin yesterday called on people to report any medical outlet selling medical certificates to migrant workers without actually running a proper health check on them.
He was responding to media reports about a number of outlets doing it, especially now that a large number of migrant workers need a medical certificate as part of their registering for a work permit.
"Tell us about this misconduct and we will have them arrested," said Mr Somsak when asked about the reported illegal sales.
Such conduct could result in a disease outbreak which could burden the healthcare system.
Since it is impossible for health authorities to monitor all medical outlets issuing medical certificate to migrant workers because there are many of them, it would be a better idea to encourage people who know about such misconduct to tell the authorities, he said.
The ministry has been paying attention to the quality of health checks for migrant workers after two Thais contracted cholera, which had been absent from Thailand for a long time, he said.
These cases were traced to Myanmar workers who had cholera and who passed it on to their Thai companions while eating together, said the minister.
Following the detection of these cases, more than 1,400 cholera vaccine doses had been sent to hospitals in the area where people are believed to be at risk of contracting the disease.
While Thai medical teams cannot cross the border into Myanmar to help contain the cholera outbreak there without a formal request from the authorities, they can supply their Myanmar counterparts with knowledge about the disease, he said.