One of the country’s largest private hospitals operators, Healthscope, has asked for rent relief from the company that owns its properties in another sign the sector is under financial pressure.

The big private hospital operators such as ASX-listed Ramsay Health Care argue that fewer patients staying overnight and rapidly rising medical costs have made it more difficult for them to make returns. They are in the midst of a dispute with health insurers, and want them to pay for more of the costs of the procedures to lift their profits.