ABSTRACT
The best safeguard is, of course, a constant attention to the quality of work. Doctors have to be registered with the General Medical Council in order to practice as a doctor within the National Health Service. The responsibilities of the Council are derived from this duty to keep the Register and, in pursuit of the quality of doctors' work, they set the standards for training and thus decide who may be entered on the Register. The concept of setting quality standards which are recognized with an external award has been around in industry for many years. The BS5750 is the national standard for quality management systems and was first published in 1979. The King's Fund in conjunction with other professional and consumer groups, has developed a method of assessing quality within primary health care teams called The King's Fund Organizational Audit.
