An internal council review has been launched in the wake of a sudden closure of an unsafe and dirty care home which put elderly residents at risk.

Inspectors shut Merok Park nursing home in Banstead in December after finding that the care home reeked of urine, had mouldy walls and a room filled to head-height with waste.

Dec 2014: Closure of second care home owned by couple who ran 'failing' Merok Park

Dec 2014: Questions remain over why residents were given just a few hours' notice of care home closure

Surrey Country Council, which was funding care for many of the home’s 27 residents, has announced it is reviewing its checking system for adult social care.

The review of the "whole quality assurance system” will look at best practice, research different models and pilot a system to identify risks and check the right actions are taken.

Three Merok Park residents died after the upheaval in December, but an adult social care committee report said the coroner had since ruled the "deaths were not attributable to the move".

The report, prepared for a meeting yesterday, said the home was visited by 12 different organisations and did not follow up on concerns raised by quality assurance teams and the fire service.

It was only after reports of “financial abuse” that there was a surprise visit which led to a damning inspection by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission.

The report said: “The many individuals who visited had concerns about poor care but as they were not patient specific or did not fall into safeguarding concerns they were not shared.”

It also said: "Families did not appear to fully understand that what [sic] constitutes good care or had not raised concerns on behalf on their relatives."

Liberal Democrat County Councillor Ernest Mallett, who belongs to the committee, said: “I think the council are disturbed that the neglect or whatever else occurred without the relatives, carers and council staff having picked up on it earlier.

"Therefore the review is, as I understand, checking into and identifying more clearly the signs of neglect and abuse that happen."

He added: “What are they doing wrong or what could they do better to avoid closing care homes because they are so unsatisfactory?”

Conservative Surrey County councillor and committee member Richard Walsh said he thought it was a “nonstory”.

A county council spokesman said: "Supporting vulnerable people is our top priority and as the Care Act has given us a new role to hold a review on cases such as this, we will work with all the agencies involved to ensure the highest standards of care continue to be met.”

Click here to see the report: AN UPDATE ON THREE AREAS OF SAFEGUARDING IN SURREY SAFEGUARDING ACTIVITY 201415 NEW SAFEGUARDING .pdf