This is the result of a postal survey which was circulated to all health authorities in 1987. The survey attempted to ask three questions: where are quality circles being used in health care; what are quality circles achieving; could a quality circle be considered to support a network in health care? When the results came in, it was impossible to present the achievements in a standard format, so they are organised by regional health authority and by the information that the RHAs supplied. There has been no auditing of the programmes.