Quality assuring professional practices: a case example from a cancer treatment center

Discusses service quality as applied to professional practice, focusing on the radiotherapy department of a cancer hospital. Differentiates professional and managerial issues in service quality management in cancer care (and by extension, professional practice). Proposes that, professional practitioners must be supported with a “service surround” subject to quality assurance (QA) disciplines but that the “service core” is largely untouchable by externally‐imposed managerial quality systems outwith those already subscribed to through codes of professional practice. Suggests that the definition of service core and service surround needs to be negotiated.