SERVICE is slowly returning to normal at the Royal Berkshire Hospital's A&E department after a fire and flood on Thursday sparked an internal incident alert.

The hospital began accepting ambulances again late last night after closing its doors to all but the critically ill yesterday.

Nurses resorted to wearing miners lamps after the hospital lost electricity following Thursday's events.

The Battle Block, in the older section of the hospital, was worst affected with all of its 89 patients successfully moved to different wards or picked up by family.

However the hospital is still under pressure and remains on alert.

The public have been asked to only attend the A&E if they are critically ill or injured.

Mary Sherry, Chief Operating Officer for Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have completed all necessary patient moves within the hospital due to Thursday's power outage, resulting in 89 patients safely moved from Battle Block. We are working to restore power with additional temporary generators at some point over the weekend.

"From 9pm yesterday evening we started to gradually reopen our A&E to receiving ambulances. The hospital still remains on internal incident alert and is still under extreme pressure. We would ask for the public to consider and only attend our A&E if critically ill. I would like to extend a very big thank you to all staff within the hospital and also to those who have assisted from South Central Ambulance Services and neighbouring hospitals.”