Trapped inside an orthodontist's body
Published Saturday July 11th, 2009
You might have seen him handing over any number of giant cardboard cheques to community organizations, flying through the skies above Fredericton in one of his charter airplanes, or even fixing teeth at Hatheway Orthodontic Clinic on Brunswick Street.
Dr. Bob Hatheway is, quite simply, a man of many interests.
Just back from a fishing trip in the Miramichi, he met reporter Chris Fox to talk about the doctor shortage, his role as a philanthropist in tough economic times and his political ambitions.
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Q: What was the last movie you saw and the last concert you went to?
A: The last movie I saw was Hannah Montana with my two daughters. It was actually a good movie and I went there with my daughters and we had a lot of fun.
The last concert I saw was the Boston Pops in May. I was there with our staff at the American Association of Orthodontists meeting and the key event was the Boston Pops and it was really fantastic.
I had Bon Jovi on the list, but I didn't end up making it to that one.
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Q: You work as an orthodontist, but also own and run several businesses. What do you primarily consider yourself to be?
A: I guess I would describe myself as a businessperson trapped inside an orthodontist's body.
I have three sort of key businesses. The orthodontic practice, of course, and a orthodontic supply company where we supply the products to move teeth around from one end of Canada to the other.
My other area of interest is aviation, and Capital Airways grew from that and it is a air charter and flight training company.
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Q: Do you fly yourself, Bob?
A: I do. I will be flying to our orthodontic office in Yarmouth tomorrow actually. I love it. That's how I got into it. I learned to fly, it turned into a business and then it took on kind of a life of its own.
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Q: I know you are heading up the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce's doctor recruitment initiative. How do we address the shortage?
A: Well, probably the most significant thing around the doctor shortage has to do with the way the population is changing.
As an example, not only is an aging population putting a greater demand on health care, but the baby boomer physicians are aging and moving towards retirement.
Typically a boomer physician has a patient load of 3,000 or more, but the model now seems to be trending towards 1,200 to 1,500, so the challenges are that the population is aging, physicians are retiring and those that have a large patient load are leaving and being replaced by physicians with much smaller patient loads.
It is almost like we need two physicians for every one that leaves just to maintain, but just maintaining is really not the objective.
We need to create an environment where we can facilitate family physicians and health care services for more people and right now there are about 3,100 people in the Fredericton area looking for a family doctor.
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Q: You're a businessman. What kind of impact does that shortage have on the city's ability to attract new businesses and industries.
A: Significant. There are positives that can come from every story, and that's the way I like to look at this.
Certainly the companies looking to relocate want to make sure their employees have access to all sorts of services, whether its medical services or golf courses.
But the other side of it is when we bring in physicians they all are bringing families with them.
That's a great opportunity to start to bring really qualified people into the region to fill jobs, responsibilities and roles that are needed for the business community.
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Q: As everyone knows, we are in the midst of some tough economic times, but every time I open the paper, it seems I see you handing over another big cheque to a local organization, most recently $40,000 to the Transforming Care Campaign at York Manor and $100,000 to the Richard J Currie Center. What keeps you motivated to give back to the community in that way?
A: Wow. Good question. I suppose my motivation is that this community has provided me with so much, and it has become a fiduciary responsibility of mine to give back.
Being able to get involved in things that I really am passionate about - whether it is the University of New Brunswick or most recently the Transforming Care Campaign - is great.
I owe pretty much everything I have to the community, so it would be irresponsible of me not to invest back into the community.
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Q: And seeing your donations make a tangible impact in the community is a great feeling, I'm sure?
A: It's terrific. As an example, part of the Transforming campaign is to create the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Aging Care, so this has a chance to have a world class research facility and R & D (research and development) dollars flow.
When you have an opportunity to bring research and development money into your own region, that's going to grow businesses, employ people and just take Fredericton up another notch.
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Q: Do you still have political ambitions, Bob? I know you considered running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party last year.
A: Well, I guess I am committed to making sure the community is a better place, so if the legislature is the best place for that, it would be an opportunity I would consider for sure.
Politics is something I have always been interested in, and I think if you are going to effect real, positive change for the province, you need credible and quality individuals in the legislature.
If people think that's where I should be, I would definitely look at it.
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Q: Could we see you running in 2010?
A: Well, there certainly is a chance of that, absolutely.
I haven't been nominated for anything at this point, and there is no imminent plan to do that, but to me it is all about being part of what the community is all about, and that may be a direction I could do some good in.
Reporter Chris Fox is a recent journalism graduate of St. Thomas University and a reporter for The Daily Gleaner. Q&A appears each Saturday.
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