Reginald Goss, 91, died at Queen’s Hospital, Romford, on October 27, 2024.
He had been admitted from Derham House Care Home, in Harwood Hall Lane, a week earlier.
An inquest was opened into his death on Thursday (February 27).
Coroner’s officer Jean Smyth told East London Coroner’s Court he had been admitted to Queen’s with “aspiration pneumonia” – usually caused by inhaling liquid into the lungs.
It was later found Mr Goss had “a blocked catheter, which had caused severe urinary tract infection”.
His cause of death was given as urosepsis, against a backdrop of frailty of old age.
Given the unnatural cause of the infection, coroner Nadia Persaud ruled the death required an inquest.
She said Mr Goss’s family and the care home would likely both be “interested persons”, giving them the right to interrogate evidence before the inquest and question any witnesses called to testify.
Mrs Persaud asked the family to produce a statement containing “general background information” about Mr Goss and “confirmation of any concerns that the family have in relation to the care home”.
If Mr Goss had been seen in the past three months by his GP and “been consulted in relation to the urinary tract”, she said she would need “a full report” from them.
“From the care home, I would like a report from the manager giving an overview of the care provided to Mr Goss,” the coroner directed – adding that she would also need his final three months of records.
If the hospital had made any safeguarding referrals over Mr Goss’s condition, she added, “I would like copies of those”.
She set a provisional inquest date of August 20.
A spokesman for Barchester Healthcare, which runs Derham House, said: “We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mr Goss.
“We are assisting the coroner in relation to this case and as it is still ongoing we are unable to make any further comment at this time.”
