Doug Lambert: Concord Hospital-Laconia using visas to employ many positions

To The Daily Sun,

There is an interesting discussion taking place on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the matter of H1B visas and their impact on the high-tech industry here in America. According to X’s Grok, H1B is “a non-immigrant visa in the United States that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.” It further notes that the “job must require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field, typically requiring at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent.” Employers “must petition for the worker through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The process includes proving that there are no sufficient U.S. workers available for the position and that hiring the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.” There is a handy link where one can search the database of these types of visas issued nationwide (h1bdata.info) so I typed in Laconia. Lo and behold, what did it reveal? Nine of 11 H1B visas were issued to Concord Hospital-Laconia. “What positions,” readers ask? Of those listed, one is for “internal medicine physician” and two are for “primary care physicians”. The balance is for “hospitalists” and one “rheumatologist”. Am I the only one that finds this all strangely coincidental that Concord Hospital-Laconia recently fired several long time (and beloved) doctors from these very same jobs? They have never explained the reasoning for this action, despite being repeatedly asked. Readers don’t think it was simply because they were able to game the immigration system for cheaper import labor, do they? Certainly, our local hospital would never do such a thing, would it?

Doug Lambert

Gilford