The Midlands’ first comprehensive MRI screening service for prostate cancer, using both PSA and a high-resolution 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, will now be offered by Heath Lodge Clinic in Solihull. The independent clinic, opened by Consultant Radiologist Dr David Beale in 2009, is offering prostate cancer screening to men with a GP referral. The results are double-reported (reviewed and reported by two Consultant Radiologists who specialise in prostate scans) at the Clinic and shared with the patient’s GP within seven days.
“The traditional way of checking for prostate cancer is with a PSA blood test, but this has been shown to be unreliable,” said Dr David Beale, Consultant Radiologist and co-founder of Heath Lodge Clinic “Recent studies have shown that relying on PSA results alone will miss significant cases of prostate cancer needing treatment, or equally could indicate false positives in cases where there isn’t any cancer leading to unnecessary treatment and biopsies. That’s why we’ve launched our comprehensive prostate cancer MRI screening service. This is the ‘gold standard’ test for prostate cancer – an MRI scan performed on a 3T MRI scanner reported by two specialist prostate Radiologists.”
On 28 November 2025, the UK National Screening Committee, the independent, scientific committee that advises the ministers and the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK on all aspects of screening, launched a 12-week public consultation on prostate cancer screening. Its draft recommendation was to offer PSA screening to those with confirmed BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene variants every 2 years, from age 45 to age 61. It did not recommend a full screening programme to the general population at this stage. However, NHS screening is currently based on offering the PSA blood test alone with no accompanying MRI imaging.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with 1 in 8 at risk of developing it in the UK. Men aged over 50, or whose brother or father had prostate cancer are at an even greater risk and if the patient is black his risk is double, according to Prostate Cancer UK. In the UK there are 56,000 new cases each year, causing 12,000 deaths.
The new screening service at Heath Lodge Clinic requires the patient, who doesn’t need to have symptoms, to be referred by a GP, either NHS or private, to ensure continuity of care.
“Given how treatable prostate cancer is when caught early, research points to the important value of MRI screening in the timely diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer,” added Dr Beale.
