Managing quality in cancer services: why improvement isn't easy.

Optimising the quality of care is an imperative for health services worldwide, including in Australia. Recognition that poor quality often has its roots in system failures is beginning to shift strategies for improvement to the systems of care, although the tendency remains to focus on eliminating the practice variations of individual clinicians. In those instances where systems improvement is addressed, strategies tend to be generic and technical, and often unrelated to the context in which they are applied.