JOHANNESBURG (dpa) – First the scalpel and then the safari – the well-heeled woman of a certain age is jetting in to South Africa to undergo plastic surgery – and booking herself onto luxury safaris to help with convalescence before returning home as a “new woman”.
Scalpel tourism, as the local press has termed the phenomenon, has been a hit among female tourists from wealthy countries in Europe and the United States.“Our doctors are world class and the buying power of strong foreign currencies is enormous, given the weakness of the rand. Why shouldn’t they make use of the situation,” South African businesswoman Lorraine Melvill asks.Melvill is regarded as something of a pioneer in the scalpel tourist business, setting up last year to promote her product to women all over the world seeking a lift.Using the Internet, (www.surgeon-and-safari.co.za) she finds clients in the United States, Canada, Hongkong, Britain and other European countries.The basis of her success is simple. She promises her clients “privacy in paradise”, in effect around-the-clock care in luxury clinics and safari lodges at prices equivalent to a third of what they would pay in their home countries.“Privacy is extremely important, especially in the post-operative phase,” Melvill says. When her clients emerge from the clinics, wearing dark glasses and bandages they can rest assured that they will be ushered into their hotel through a side entrance away from the crowds in the lobby.South African medical authorities have mixed feelings when they view the new trend.“It provides further evidence that we continue to maintain a high level of medical expertise, despite concerns about a brain drain,” says Sam Mokgokong, a professor at Pretorias Garankuwa Hospital.“Nevertheless, many doctors are no longer working in public health care because they are opening private clinics,” says Mokgokong, who enjoys an international reputation following three extremely complex operations to separate Siamese twins.Mokgokong tends to take a positive view of the scalpel tourism, as do the patients, who are generous in their praise of South African surgeons.“In the United States beauty surgeons act as though they were on a production line and leave the patients to their fate after the operation. Here things are completely different,” 65-year-old American Corrine Tiberti from Las Vegas says.It is just a week since the blonde mother of four had the lower part of her face lifted by a Johannesburg surgeon, and there is no trace of visible scarring.“From a quality point of view, it was just unbelievable,” Tiberti says, adding that she has had less satisfactory experiences in her home country.She paid around 3,500 dollars for the Johannesburg procedure. “In the United States it would have been 15,000 dollars easily – and that without this wonderful care,” says Tiberti, who was encouraged to embark on her beauty holiday by a friend.That friend is Eve Lie-Cammack, a 60-year-old Norwegian and wife of a doctor. She has undergone several plastic surgery operations in Johannesburg with a surgeon she twists.“There were quite a few things to do in my case, and in the United States I would have faced a bill of 25,000 dollars, whereas here I paid less than 5,000 dollars,” Lie-Cammack says.Lie-Cammack, who also works in the medical sector, felt it was important to try out the service she was offering her clients, as well as checking out the accommodation needed for a relaxing convalescence.She managed to convince her friend Tiberti, who had expected to find Johannesburg overrun with gangsters.“I feel safe here, and the prices are unbeatable. I’ve never done so much shopping in my life,” said Tiberti.