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Dining room at Aquarius Care Home
Photo: Aquarius Care Home. Used with permission.
Rated:Requires ImprovementResidential

Aquarius Care Home

8 Watson Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9SH
01634861380
Care Type

Residential Care

Assessment date

13 October 2025

Provider

Radha Krishna Healthcare Ltd

Beds

20 beds

How this home compares nearby

Of 37 care homes for older people within 5 miles, 26 are rated higher by CQC, 10 are the same and 1 is lower.

5 of these nearby homes have been inspected more recently than this one.

Based on CQC ratings, updated 23 October 2026. How we compare homes | See the nearby homes

Rating history

  1. GoodMar 2018
  2. Requires ImprovementAug 2021
  3. Requires ImprovementMar 2023
  4. Requires ImprovementDec 2025

Rating dropped from Good to Requires Improvement in 2021.

Source: CQC inspection reports. Contains CQC data licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Costs and who runs this home

This is the only care home Radha Krishna Healthcare Ltd runs in England.

Average care home fees in the South East: £1,243 a week for residential care and £1,579 for nursing care (2024-25 averages). Self-funders usually pay more. See our care home costs guide.

  • This home lists dementia care, which usually costs more than standard residential care. See dementia care home costs. NHS Continuing Healthcare may apply where someone's needs are primarily health needs.
  • How to pay for a care home explains the council means test, what counts as capital and the funding you can ask to be assessed for.

About Aquarius Care Home

Aquarius Care Home is a residential care home in Medway, providing support for older people living with dementia and physical disabilities. The details below set out the CQC's most recent findings on the service.

Aquarius Care Home in Medway is a residential service for up to 20 older people living with dementia and physical disabilities, some of whom have a learning disability. This assessment followed earlier enforcement action, and the CQC rates the home as requires improvement overall. Some progress had been made on person centred care, but inspectors found continuing breaches relating to safe care and treatment and good governance, including a deteriorating environment and safety concerns not addressed promptly.

Care plans for people who had lived there longer term had not been kept up to date, and high staff turnover affected consistency of care. People and relatives described staff as kind, though not always available to spend time talking, and feedback on activities was mixed. Health needs were well managed, and people said they felt safe and could raise concerns confidently.

Source: CQC assessment, 22 December 2025

Specialist Care

DementiaOlder peoplePhysical disabilitiesSensory impairmentsYounger adults

Photographs of the home

Dining room at Aquarius Care Home
Dining room at Aquarius Care Home. Photograph from the provider’s website.Photo: Aquarius Care Home. Used with permission.

Fees and availability

We have not verified a current weekly fee for this home. Ask for a written quote based on the room and care needed, including any extra charges.

Check current vacancies, the admission assessment and visiting arrangements directly with the home.

Care and inspection details

Checked against the CQC register on 20 September 2026. This is a check of published information, not a visit to the home.

Registered service
Care home service without nursing
Registered capacity
20 places — this is not a vacancy count
Registration checked
Registered · ME5 9SH

Registered care categories

Caring for adults over 65 yrs; Caring for adults under 65 yrs; Dementia; Physical disabilities; Sensory impairment.

These describe the registration. The home must assess whether it can meet the individual person's needs and whether a place is available.

CQC ratings in more detail

Overall rating shown by CQC: Requires Improvement.

Assessment published 22 December 2025. Assessment date recorded: 13 October 2025.

Read CQC's assessment overview

The following is CQC's published account of its assessment, published 22 December 2025. References to “we” mean CQC. It describes findings at that time.

We carried out this assessment between 27 October 2025 and 19 November 2025. Aquarius Care Home is a residential service providing support to older people living with dementia and physical disabilities for up to 20 people. At the time of our assessment there were 20 people using the service. Two of these people had a learning disability.

We completed this assessment to follow up enforcement action we issued after our last assessment where significant shortfalls had been found in relation to safe care and treatment, person centred care and good governance.

At this assessment, we found the provider had made some improvements and was no longer in breach of regulation with regards to person centred care. [MS1][ND2]This was because new care plans contained personalised information and they were working towards everyone’s records being of the same standard. However, overall actions taken were not sufficient to improve all areas of the service and we found continued breaches of regulation in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance.

This assessment has been undertaken of a service that is used by autistic people or people with a learning disability but is not registered as a specialist service. We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

People felt safe, but staff were not always guided how to minimise potential risks in their daily lives. There had been a deterioration in the home environment and safety concerns had not been addressed in a timely manner.

Although assessments of people newly admitted to the service were comprehensive and person centred, this was not reflected for people who had lived at the service longer term. The service had not updated the care plans of people currently living at the service, so they provided the necessary guidance for staff.

People and relatives told us there was a high turnover of staff which impacted the quality of care people received. People and relatives said staff were kind and caring but did not always have time to sit and talk with them. There had been improvements in how staff were supported through the use of formal supervisions. However, there were mixed responses from staff about how well they felt supported and listened to.

People continued to be supported to maintain their health and the service had received positive feedback from health care professionals about their working relationship. People had a choice of what to eat and drink to stay healthy.

Improvements had been made in monitoring accidents and incidents and systems to monitor the quality of care had been introduced. However, these processes had not enabled the service to make all the necessary improvements in a timely manner.

Safe
Requires Improvement
Effective
Good
Caring
Good
Responsive
Good
Well-led
Requires Improvement

Questions prompted by these ratings

  • Safe: What changes have been made to medicines, staffing and safeguarding since this rating?
  • Well-led: What has changed in management, checks and oversight since this rating?

These are questions for your visit, not a claim about conditions today.

Read Aquarius Care Home's CQC record and reports.

Contains Care Quality Commission information under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Ratings and registration details can change after the date checked.

5 Questions to Ask on Your Visit

When visiting Aquarius Care Home, consider asking...

  1. 1.What specific dementia training do staff receive and how recently?
  2. 2.How do you support a resident who becomes distressed or confused?
  3. 3.How does the home keep a record of a resident's life history and personal preferences?
  4. 4.How do you involve families as dementia progresses and communication becomes harder?
  5. 5.What happens when a resident's dementia reaches an advanced stage?

5 Things to Look For on Your Visit

When you visit Aquarius Care Home, look out for...

  1. 1.Is the environment calm, uncluttered and easy to navigate?
  2. 2.Do staff speak to residents with patience and dignity, even if they repeat themselves?
  3. 3.Are there memory cues around the home -- photos, familiar objects, clear signage?
  4. 4.Do residents seem settled and safe, or agitated and unsupervised?
  5. 5.Is there meaningful activity happening, or are residents just sitting quietly with nothing to do?

Could the NHS fund Aquarius Care Home's fees?

The average nursing home costs £1,535 per week. That's £79,820 a year. NHS Continuing Healthcare could cover all of it. No means test, no contribution from you.

Location

8 Watson Avenue, Chatham, Kent, ME5 9SH

CQC Logo

Aquarius Care Home

CQC overall rating

Requires Improvement

Assessment date: 13 October 2025

View full inspection report
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