More preventable deaths will happen at a care home in St Paul's Cray unless action is taken to safeguard residents, a coroner has warned.

South London coroner Jacqueline Devonish was investigating the death of a 92-year-old woman in the care of Baycroft in Grays Farm Road.

Doris McCarthy moved into the home in September last year and died two months later of natural causes because of pulmonary embolism.

However, the coroner added she had an underlying subdural haemorrhage caused by recurrent falls.

Mrs McCarthy suffered two falls at the care home at the start of her stay, which staff were not alerted to because of sensor alarms failing to activate.

The first fall was just one day after she moved in.

The coroner wrote in her conclusion: “In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”

She said beforehand: "The evidence given was that the system had frequent outages, and that it was not possible to know when such an outage had occurred."

A spokeswoman for Baycroft admitted staff were not alerted to the falls because of IT system failures, which they say have since been upgraded.

She added that measures have been introduced to safeguard residents most at risk of falling.

These include non-slip pads on the seats of cushions and activating pressure mats, both implemented since Mrs McCarthy’s death.

Baycroft was recently inspected by the Care Quality Commission which concluded it required improvement.

Despite receiving a good mark for its care, its safety, effectiveness and responsiveness were all areas of concern in the report published on August 23.

Baycroft said it was “disappointed” with the rating and was working on the recommended improvements.

The spokeswoman added it was “very saddened” by Mrs McCarthy’s death and said a care worker is now present in all communal areas to provide extra support for those who need it.