NHS Never Events are serious, preventable incidents that should not happen when existing national guidance is followed by healthcare providers.
One of the most common Never Events is the accidental retention of surgical swabs in patients – with 106 cases of a retained foreign object post procedure being reported in the past year1.
The reason for this being that current surgical counts rely on manual counting, where practitioners complete a count of swabs before and after a surgery. This method however is prone to human error, especially during high-pressure surgical procedures where critical mistakes are most likely to happen.
Retained swabs can then lead to reoperation, infection and in some instances, death.
Innovation
iCount introduces a solution that holds the potential to eliminate this Never Event entirely.
The team has developed a device that securely holds multiple surgical swabs, acting as a physical checklist. The simple design provides practitioners with a visual and tactile confirmation of how many swabs are in use – helping ensure an accurate count every time.
Pre-packed for sterility, iCount replaces traditional methods like swab bags or visual-only checks and integrates directly into sterile operating theatres reducing human error without disrupting workflow.
Furthermore, an optional accompanying AI-powered software has been developed to help verify counting to integrate with smart operating theatres and Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
The simplicity of the iCount device makes the highly effective product inexpensive and widely available. Designed to seamlessly integrate into universal surgical workflows – the prevention of retained swabs can start right away.
The benefits:
- Cost-effective safety: iCount reduces the risk of costly litigation, repeat surgery, and extended patient hospital stays. Between 2015 to 2020, NHS Resolution paid out £12.5m in claimant legal costs, NHS legal costs and damages in relation to Never Events caused by human error2.
- Improved NHS workflow: The simplified counting system improves team efficiency, reduces extra workloads and helps NHS teams meet audit and regulatory requirements with confidence.
The West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator (WMHTIA) has supported iCount by facilitating the company’s regulatory journey, scaling up their manufacturing capabilities and developing a business case for commercialising their device for real-world deployment.
This has included drawing on the support of the following WMHTIA partners:
- Shoosmiths and Forresters: Support with Intellectual Property (IP) protection filings in nine international markets and commercialisation of the IP through an international manufacturing/distributor agreement.
- Medilink Midlands, Acuwomen and Health Innovation West Midlands: Facilitated crucial connections for iCount with key stakeholders in the regional healthcare and innovation ecosystem – strengthening their visibility and potential adoption into the NHS.
- Technology Supply chain (TSC): Facilitated network connections, including introductions to finance expertise. Provided expert bid writing and comprehensive marketing support.
iCount were also WMHTIA grant recipients, utilising funding for additional prototype refinement and technical validation.
What’s next?
iCount is set to launch in NHS maternity settings in September 2025 as revealed in an announcement at the National Maternity Safety Conference 2025.
Additionally, iCount have signed a collaboration with KIMAL PLC, a medical products manufacturer and distributer, helping scale iCount’s reach far beyond the West Midlands.
Aditi Desai, Co-founder of iCount, said:
“The support from the WMHTIA has been instrumental in transforming iCount to a market-ready innovation. The accelerator helped us navigate the final crucial stages of the development the journey such as user testing the final prototype, securing funding for intellectual property consolidation, regulatory support and networking with key stakeholders for NHS adoption. The funding and wider partner support was crucial for us to bring a patient safety innovation to the real world.”
For more information on the work that iCount are doing, visit www.icountcorrect.com
The WMHTIA is part of the pilot Innovation Accelerator programme, which is led by Innovate UK on behalf of UK Research and Innovation and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
This new model of funding focuses on locally-led innovation to drive economic growth and technological advancement by supporting regional innovative businesses, researchers and entrepreneurs. In the West Midlands, local leadership has been driven by a partnership comprising of the West Midlands Combined Authority, universities and other research institutions, and senior industry representatives.
Building on the £100 million already invested between 2022 and 2025, a further £30m was spread equally across three UK city-regions participating in the pilot Innovation Accelerator programme, which includes a funding boost of £4m for the WMHTIA to continue its support of Health Tech innovators in 2025/26.
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