Dr. Pawlos Quana'a - A Man of Substance
Medical care in Ethiopia has been going down hill for the past eight years,
according to Dr. Pawlos Quana'a. At 62, Dr. Pawlos Quana'a, an Ophthalmic
Surgeon, is as opinionated and headstrong as ever. His recent retirement as
head of the Eye Department at the Addis Ababa University far from spells out
an end to one of the most illustrious medical careers in the country. He will
try to re-activate his private clinic which has been sealed by the region 14
health bureau for the past year.
By his calculation, he is most probably one of the first ten Ethiopian doctor
to graduate and return to this country. "Some stupid fellow "in Wingate--where
Dr. Pawlos went to school -- told the class that the World Health Organization
was giving out scholarships and those who wanted to be doctors should put up
their hands. "We did not know what being a doctor meant" he explained but the
whole class followed the hand of one classmate, he said. That "stupid fellow"
may not have been so stupid after all, for some of the best doctors of the
country came from that class.
The scholarship was for the American University of Beirut, where his London
Matriculation results enabled him to go straight to the second year. Though
there was a somewhat large Ethiopian community in Beirut--with four fifths
of the country's senior medical staff graduating from there--the new culture
took some getting used to, remembers Dr. Pawlos. When a teacher entered the
class the Ethiopian students who, out of habit stood, could not help noticing
the others lounging in their desks. The climate was another bone of contention.
When the Ethiopians complained about the heat and humidity, the people around
were quick to respond, "How did you get to be so dark then?". But it was not
all discomfort and misunderstandings. They took part in special cultural shows
and also had fun on the sports field. Dr. Pawlos still proudly remembers coming
first in the 800 meters and taking part in soccer and the pole vault.
In 1958, he graduated and came back to Ethiopia to work at what was then known
as the Princess Tsehai Memorial Hospital. Though the government was doing all
it can to get more Ethiopian doctors, it was more than obvious that it still had a long way to go before it achieved its goal. "It was unbelievable" Dr. Pawlos
exclaimed as he recalled that there were around five hundred foreign doctors
here in Addis Ababa alone. "When it was the king's birthday the Ministry of
Health would hold a cocktail, where we would be invited. we would stand by the
wall with our coke in our hands" he added, "because the foreigners would have
filled the room." Patients, used to the mostly Bulgarian and Yugoslav Doctors,
could not come to terms with their Ethiopian counterparts. "The patients would
always complain," said Dr. Pawlos, "that the doctor had not seen them. When we
went to them and said `but I saw you this morning', they would reply `I do not
mean you, I meant the foreigner.' Of course rather capable people help change
this attitude, now, it is an entirely different story. "Of the expatriate
doctors, Dr. Pawlos said, "there were some good one, and of course there
were some terrible ones. Luckily, there was a General Medical Advisory Board
(GMAB) that screened anybody who was not capable." In trying to illustrate
clearly just how useful the GMAB was, he tells of an instance where someone
with a B.A. in Education was caught in Arussi trying to pass himself for a
doctor. "The nurses were complaining that the man, who came from Sudan, did not
seem to be a doctor. So we went to check him out and true enough he did not know
the slightest thing." Two years later, Dr. Pawlos went back to Lebanon to
specialize in Eye, Ear, Nose, Throat (EENT), but found out he could only do
one--so he chose the eye. When he came back to Ethiopia this time, he joined
Menelik Hospital eye department. In 1970 he became head of the eye department
at the Addis Ababa University. "Luckily," he explained, "eye doctors from the
ministry of health would help out. But for many years, I could claim I was
the only one in the university who had only one staff in his departmen." The
one-man department soon expanded in 1983, when three of the first batch of
is hopeful that this might change soon. The department has now graduated
around thirty-two eye doctors.
Apart from his duties at the university and Menelik Hospital, Dr. Pawlos is
involved in various activities. He is the chairman of the National PolioPlus
Committee, and the district coordinator of Janipur Foot for Kenya,
Ethiopia, Uganda, and Eritrea. Both selfless Rotary activities, he notes.
He was also the outgoing president for the Ophthalmic Society of Ethiopia
in 1996, and past president of Rotary Club of Addis Ababa. Till 1994, he was
International Vitamin A Consultative Group (IVAGC) regional representative
for Africa. Dr. Pawlos is also country representative for the Afro Arab Society of Ophthalmology.
Ethiopia started training its own doctors in 1963, and medical care in the
country was rising steadily. That is until recently. According to Dr. Pawlos,
Ethiopia does not lack manpower, yet. Discouraged with the state of things, the country's young doctors are leaving for other countries. "Saudi Arabia has no
manpower but it does have enough cash" Dr. Pawlos noted to hire expatriated--some of them Ethiopians.Ethiopia on the other hand, he said, had the manpower but artificial scarcity of medical supplies by the health authorities, he said, were making things bad.
Long waiting lists, inadequate service, lack of essential equipment as gloves
and syringes, are a clear indication that what had started out full of promise
has one daughter from his previous marriage. His hobbies include swimming,
and reading historical and classical novels. Surprising for someone whose year
book shows inscribed under his photo, `resistance to tyranny is obedience
to God' and`Stubbornness is a virtue not a vice,' Dr. Pawlos' motto in life is `Fair play'.
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