During an assessment under our new approach
Date of assessment: 27 April to 12 May 2026, including a site visit to the provider’s office on 27 April 2026. Merline healthcare is a care at home service providing support to adults, including people who require end of life care and clinical care, in the areas of Leeds and York. At the time of assessment, the service was supporting 14 people. This was this service’s first assessment, and we reviewed all quality statements.
We carried out this assessment due to concerns we received regarding staffing and safety of care. During our assessment we identified concerns about people not always receiving safe care, staff not always being safely recruited or trained and management concerns. The provider was in breach of four regulations, relating to safe care and treatment, recruitment, staffing and governance.
We were not assured the service provided was always safe and we found shortfalls in the way the service was managed. Medicines recording systems were not robust. We found gaps in medication administration records and there was a lack of detail in protocols to help staff know when to use medicines for use ‘as and when required’. There was also limited evidence that medicines which required 4-hour gaps in between doses had been administered safely.
More robust oversight was required in relation to delegated clinical tasks completed by staff and the safety of equipment used to move people. Staffing, recruitment and deployment of staff were not consistently managed to ensure people received safe care. We found incomplete recruitment checks and rota arrangements did not always allow sufficient time for staff to travel or rest in between shifts. There had been several instances of late visits.
Quality assurance, learning and governance systems had not been effective in identifying or addressing these issues prior to our assessment. Although the service demonstrated a caring culture and the registered manager was receptive to feedback and began to take action following this assessment, we found improvements were required to ensure the service delivered was safe and effective for people.
People and relatives consistently told us staff were kind, caring and respectful. Safeguarding systems were effective, and staff demonstrated appropriate knowledge and action to protect people from abuse. Infection prevention and control practices were embedded, and staff understood how to manage risks of infection.
We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.