Raided in May, reopened, raided again in October: the Pattaya shophouse clinic with no licensed doctor, and the second clinic whose two 'doctors' fled by car

Pattaya, in Thailand's Chon Buri province, treats many foreign residents and visitors. A doctor there must be registered with the Medical Council of Thailand, and a clinic needs an operating licence under the Medical Facility Establishment Act, with the physician it names present. Two raids in late 2025 showed both rules being ignored.

According to The Pattaya News, at 2:15 pm on 17 October 2025 Crime Suppression Division Region 2 and the Chon Buri Provincial Public Health Office raided a clinic in a three-storey shophouse on Soi Chaiyapreuk 2. The person treating patients, Pansanya Udomta, 44, could not produce a medical licence. Worathan Inwanna, 48, who handled patient histories, and the owner, Wariya Khao Songtham, 52, were also detained. Police found two examination rooms and a recovery area with IV drips, and seized patient records, medical certificates and antibiotics. The clinic had been raided in May 2025 and had reopened. The Thaiger reported that officials had watched it for months and that undercover agents posed as patients before the raid; the physician named on the displayed licence was absent.

On 12 November 2025, The Pattaya News reported, Provincial Police Region 2 and Chon Buri health officials raided Center Pattaya Clinic in Nongprue after a tip and an undercover visit. Two suspected impostor doctors, a man and a woman, ran out of the back and left in separate cars. The clinic had no operating licence, no licensed physician or pharmacist was present, and it mainly treated foreigners. According to The Thaiger, the complaint came from a patient treated four times for urethritis at more than 6,000 baht, whose diagnosis a hospital doctor called completely inaccurate; the clinic reportedly targeted sex workers and foreigners. The supposed doctor was not on the Medical Council's register. Police identified the man who fled as a 46-year-old and were expected to seek an arrest warrant.

The gap in both cases was between paper and practice. The first clinic displayed a licence with a real physician's name on it, but that person was not treating anyone, and the May raid had not stopped it reopening. The second had no licence at all. Nothing on the door told a sick foreigner the difference.

For students heading to Thailand and their families, the checks are simple. Look the doctor's name up on the Medical Council of Thailand's register before accepting treatment outside a hospital, and check whether the physician named on the clinic's licence is the person in front of you. A high fee for repeated treatment of a simple complaint is a reason to seek a hospital's second opinion. If your 'doctor' turns out to be unlicensed, report it to the provincial public health office.