A small rural community has vowed to fight for an ongoing medical service, after losing their visiting nurse due to failed negotiations with the local council. 

The South Australian town of Morgan, home to around 400 people, is located on the banks of the River Murray in South Australia. 

While it is estimated a full-time general practitioner has not consulted in Morgan for more than 40 years, the town also lost regular GP services around five years ago.

This service was replaced by a visiting nurse practitioner in 2015, who travelled to Morgan to consult once a month initially, but then twice a month as demand increased.

But rising costs, and failed negotiations over the lease agreement for the council-owned consulting space, led to nurse practitioner Jason Walters walking away from providing the service. 

'We have to drive it'

Morgan Community Development and Tourism Association chair Di Hausler said locals appreciated Mr Walters's work and his exit dealt a massive blow to the community. 

The nearest medical services outside of Morgan are almost an hour away. 

Ms Hausler said the association was hosting a community meeting to demonstrate local support for the service, as well as turning to the Mid Murray Council to help find a solution. 

"We want support for this meeting because this is now back in our hands and if we want something to happen, we have to drive it," she said. 

"We have found ourselves in this position before and it had been such a hard slog to find someone to come to Morgan and support the Morgan community. 

The Mid Murray Council has been involved in the ongoing challenge to attract medical professionals to Morgan for years, despite service provisions being a responsibility of the state government.

In a council meeting, it was revealed Mr Walters had been paying council a $2 peppercorn lease for the use of its building since 2015. 

Council had since sought to formalise the agreement and offered a lease for $7,800 annually.

Mayor Simone Bailey said it had asked for a "little contribution" from Mr Walters for use of the building and had advised him council staff could no longer provide appointment booking services. 

"We don't do that for any other private enterprise and there's a bit of a risk when you're taking medical bookings as a council service," she said. 

Ms Bailey says council is committed to supporting Morgan to find a consistent medical service. 

Nurses play vital role in filling rural medical gap

Australia's peak body for regional and rural health says nurse practitioners play an important role in making medical services accessible to remote Australians. 

National Rural Health Alliance chief officer Susi Tegan says nurse practitioners are a vital piece of the medical system and that people who live remotely deserve the same access to healthcare as those in metropolitan areas. 

"Health care is not about having a centre where people have to drive five hours to get to; it's often about providing a service as an outreach program," Ms Tegan said.