Efficient way to access current result count in left block

Question

Tried a few different approaches to this but still not sure of the best option for something which should be relatively simple. I want to output the current product result count, instead of within the toolbar, in the layered navigation (left block).

I realise that I need to use an instance of catalog/product_list_toolbar to be able to access $this->getTotalNum(), but creating a new block with the same block class doesn't work. I've tried the below but it seems to result in a slower page load and count results inconsistent with what's in the toolbar:

<?php $customBlock = $this->getLayout()->getBlock('product_list'); ?>
    <?php echo $customBlock->getLoadedProductCollection()->count(); ?>

Thanks for any pointers.