The global medical tourism market is valued at forty billion dollars. Little surprise then, that in June of 2006, a small group of South Africa's industry players established the Medical Tourism Services Association (MTSA) to give other medical tourism hot spots such as India and Thailand a run for their money.

"'MTSA's main objective is to market, promote and develop the industry. It will also focus on maintaining quality standards of South African medical tourism by striving to regulate service delivery, fostering accountability and providing credibility,'" explains Andrea Plummer, one of the four board members.

Surgeon and Safari, which describes itself as a "world leader in the medical tourism industry," has been in business since 1999. Although based in South Africa, they offer face-to-face consultations in London, and encourage potential clients in the UK and Europe to take advantage of the service before packing their suitcase. Their packages include airport transportation, hospital transportation, luxury accommodations, support during your recuperation, meals, consultations, bookings, and tours. If you think you'd find it difficult to fully appreciate the sounds of trumpeting elephants while bouncing around in the back of a Land Rover with new C-cup breasts tightly bandaged in place, no worries. They also advertise wine safaris, day safaris, train safaris, country safaris, and wilderness safaris.

As written in a 2001 Los Angeles Times article, Surgeon and Safari offer postoperative excursions ranging, "from game park and vineyard tours, to rides on an authentic steam train, to an excursion through the sprawling black township of Soweto outside Johannesburg." And because the South African rand has such a long-standing low rate on the foreign-exchange market, regardless of which surgical procedure and safari you choose, you're still bound to save a pretty hefty wad of cash.

The Mediscapes agency, founded in 2002, also specializes in surgical recovery and rejuvenation packages. According to their website, they provide, "clients with complete packages comprising preliminary evaluations, the medical procedures themselves, all accommodation for yourself and a partner, if needed, and a wide range of supplementary services." Their extensive list of medical procedures range from cosmetic surgery and dentistry, to infertility treatments, heart surgery, and kidney transplants. And once potential clients are thoroughly screened, Mediscapes claims full responsibility for your pre and postoperative medical care.

Unlike Surgeon and Safari, Mediscapes allows their clients to choose from a Standard, Luxury or Elite Package, to which the cost of the medical procedure is added. They also strongly promote their, "preferential arrangements with the best game lodges and hotels in South Africa, and the best resorts in the Indian Ocean." After reading the list of features included in their packages, it took every ounce of my being not to cash out an old profit sharing pension plan fund, and send in my deposit for a little nip/tuck.

In March 2006, People chronicled the experiences of Kristie Allen, a 30-year-old American woman who, through Mediscapes, traveled to Cape Town for body sculpting surgery after losing eighty pounds. Her rave reviews were not unlike one would expect from a jackpot lottery winner. And according to the article, her only regret was not having her backside suctioned to match her front.