Theories on quality assurance are never in short supply in the health service today, but what managers and health professionals need now, more than ever, are practical examples of how health services can be improved and enhanced within limited resources. This text gives examples from the real-life experience of a small health care unit in South London. It describes how a systematic approach to quality can be adopted to the realities of day-to-day management in such areas as clinical audit, customer relations and patient satisfaction. Wandsworth Community Health Services are at the forefront of the introduction of quality assurance into the NHS.