BEIJING, Aug. 1 -- The Chinese government is exploring measures to encourage pooled procurement of expensive medical consumables in a bid to address the problem of overpricing of expensive medical consumables, an official said Thursday.

Li Tao, deputy head of the National Healthcare Security Administration, made the remarks at a State Council press conference explaining a scheme on expensive medical consumables rectification reforms published by the State Council on Wednesday.

Expensive medical consumables are medical consumables used on humans with high safety standards, in large volumes and at relatively high prices.

The administration will improve measures for medical institutions to purchase expensive medical consumables in a pooled way by category, including establishing procurement platforms and requiring public medical institutions to buy all expensive medical consumables on the platforms.

The measures will also include encouraging the pooled purchase of expensive medical consumables by medical institutions in different provinces and canceling medical consumables mark-ups, Li said.