It pays over $400,000 a year and offers three month’s holiday but no one wants this job

IT seems like a dream job with all the benefits but no one is taking up the offer.

A doctor’s surgery in Tokoroa in the Waikato region of New Zealand’s North Island has advertised for a new doctor but after four months hasn’t had a single response, reported The New Zealand Herald.

As well as being located in a picturesque setting the job comes with a salary of over NZ$400,000 a year (AU$368,000) and three months of holiday each year.

The new doctor will also be exempt from night and weekend work as well as get a share of half of the practice which has 6000 patients on its books.

Practice co-owner Dr Alan Kenny says that numbers have increased rapidly in the town which has a population of 13,600 people.

“I can offer them a really, really amazing income, it’s incredible,” Dr Kenny said.

“My practice has exploded in the last year and the more patients you list, the more money you get.

“But it just gets too much at the end of the day.

“Last year, I cancelled a holiday because I couldn’t get a locum...and this year I am probably going to have to cancel a holiday...and it’s just tough for me.”

He said the fact that the job is in a rural location is putting people off.

There are six doctors at the practice but Dr Kenny’s daughter is the only New Zealander as he says it’s impossible to attract locals.

“If it’s hard enough to get doctors to work alongside me, it’s going to be a devil of a job to get doctors to replace me.”

It can take up to three years to fill rural GP vacancies, with young doctors citing issues such as isolation, lack of schooling and social activities and poor access to broadband as reasons they are turned off reported The Mirror.

Tokoroa is the fifth-largest town in the Waikato region and from Tokoroa it is less than an hour’s drive to the major centres of Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua and Taupo.

Tokoroa is also home to the Talking Poles which have been popping up in the town since 1997.