Police were on the scene at a nursing home shut down this afternoon with a 'few hours' notice for its elderly dementia sufferers.

Some will be left without a home just two weeks before Christmas.

UPDATE: Care Quality Commission says residents were washed in cold water and workers had no criminal records checks

Les Shields, from Epsom, whose 78-year-old father has been a resident at Merok Park nursing home in Park Road, Banstead, for six years, said he is deeply worried the upheaval could put the lives of the 27 residents at risk.

25 were in the nursing home when it was shut down, while two residents were in hospital.

Mr Shields said: "They have no plan. Staff are crying. The police are down there. It’s a free for all."

Merok Park Nursing Home is run by Soondressen Cooppen and his wife Maleenee.  According to the CQC's website, the couple also own Faygate House care home in Mayfield Road, Sutton. 

Mr Shields said the standards of care at Merok Park have been getting "worse and worse" and that he and his sister were surprised when the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that the home had met all of the standards it inspected at the establishment in January this year.

He said a member of Epsom’s social care team confirmed to him over the phone today that the CQC had told the team to close Merok Park this afternoon.

But Mr Shields said that the team member said it did not know exactly why or where the residents would go.

Mr Shields’ sister was informed of the action this morning via telephone.

He said: "The police are up there at the moment, the staff are wailing away, two weeks before Christmas.

"The CQC passed it off as fit for purpose in February [when its inspection report was published online].

"The place is a dump. A kennel.

"This is meant to be a specialist care home for elderly people many of whom have dementia.

"From what we can see they bring in outside staff and have been cutting corners with staff."

He said that on several occasions his mother found his father sitting soiled.

Mr Shields added: "They are throwing out 21 residents who are elderly people.

"Some of them could die because of this.

"This is a massive upheaval for these people. Many of them are institutionalised and confused.

"It’s hard to say how we treat people. He has got a roof over his head, has paid into the system all his life.

"We knew it was being investigated and we had been asking the Epsom care team if dad could be moved into Epsom and Ewell so my mother could visit him.

"I’m afraid this home has been going downhill with the care it provides for a while.

"Yes, it may need to be closed but how can you just close it two weeks before Christmas with no plan as to what to put these people?"

Mr Shields said relatives are at the home now making calls to other care homes.

He said his sister has been asked to bring a car to the home so that her father’s belongings could be packed away.

He added: "At some stage he will be distressed.

"Moving elderly people is a very, very risky, serious business.

"We don’t know where to turn. It’s absolutely scandalous."

A member of staff at the nursing home told the Epsom Guardian this afternoon: "The CQC said the people have to move.  I found out yesterday.

"They have all been moving to other places this afternoon. 

"Of course they are upset.  They don't want to move but we have been told they have to."

When asked why the CQC asked the nursing home to shut down, the staff member said he could not discuss anything further due to legal issues.

A Surrey Police spokesman said: "Uniformed officers assisted with the closure of a care home in Banstead following a request by the Care Quality Commission.

"The closure, which involved several partner agencies, took place on the morning of Tuesday, December 9."

The news of the closure broke as Adrian Hughes, deputy chief inspector of adult social care in the South for the CQC, was being interviewed by the Epsom Guardian about the CQC's practices.  

He said Merok Park "is on our radar", but that he would be able to provide more details of today's closure once he had spoken to colleagues later this afternoon.

Do you know more about what has happened?  Contact Hardeep Matharu by calling 020 8722 6346 or email hmatharu@london.newsquest.co.uk.