By Morland Sanders BBC ONE'S Real Story

Maisie McCarthy was 92 when I first met her.

She was in a room that was probably only a few metres square but it was light, ever so warm and spotlessly clean.

The Erlscote Nursing Home in Liverpool was Masie's home. Yes, she shared it with 30 other residents and half a dozen trained staff but she was happy and secure here.

That was until earlier this year when Masie was forced elsewhere. The home was closing, residents were moving out, staff were looking for a new job and everything was up for sale from tins of spaghetti to bedpans.

Increase in fees

Maisie has senile dementia and does not express her emotions but on the day she left Earlscote Nursing Home she was swearing and was clearly distressed.

Her son Kevin was in tears. "She's a changed person, she's aggressive now, I just don't recognise that in her."

There is now real concern that moving residents of care homes at this age is not only traumatic but can prove fatal.

Take the case of Violet Townsend. The 88-year-old lived in Magdalen House for eight years before she was moved out by Gloucester County Council so they could avoid paying an increase in fees of �10 a day.

Violet Townsend's GP appealed for her not to be moved

Just five days later Violet died.

Indeed, she was old, but Violet's GP, Dr Iain Jarvis, was in no doubt what had caused Violet Townsend's death - being forced out of her home.

"She'd been moved against her will. She'd given up on life, she really had lost any desire to live," he said.

Dr Jarvis wrote this on the death certificate "cause of death...stress due to being moved."

The coroner was not a fan of this description and instructed Dr Jarvis to rewrite the certificate inserting "old age" as the cause of death.

Government u-turn

He did what he was told but still vociferously disagrees and believes countless other old people are dying in similar circumstances with similar "cover ups" on death certificates.

1100 beds are lost from the care home sector every month. The entire industry is simply disappearing.

The National Care Homes Association says it is all due to a lack of funding. Stricter government guidelines introduced by the government were also too expensive for many homes to carry out - these included expanding bedroom sizes and communal areas.

The government has since relaxed these requirements but in the meantime hundreds of care homes have gone to the wall and they are unlikely to ever return.

Real Story was broadcast on Monday, 14 July, on BBC One and on the Real Story website.