Theme 3: practicalities of placebo usage in healthcare
infection
INFECTION
Participants debated whether placebos should be priced as regular medication, with most believing that as a tangible good or service received from a healthcare provider, a placebo should be treated monetarily similar to any other medication. However, others viewed charging for placebos as either unethical or unfair to patients. Some suggested alternative funding routes for placebos through charities or subsidisation. Individual physiological differences between patients and the degree to which this affected receptiveness were raised as a potential practical barrier to the widespread use of placebos as substitutes. Participants also considered wider ramifications, such as the potential reinforcement of a transactional, medicalized response to ailments, increased traffic towards primary care services, and the potential spread of infection within primary care sites.