A GP in rural New Zealand has complained that after two years searching, he is unable to attract anyone to a job offering $400,000 (€242,000) a year, three months paid leave and with half-ownership of the practice thrown in as a sweetener.

Dr Alan Kenny has been trying to hire an additional GP for his practice in the Waikato town of Tokoroa – a town of 13,600 people in the North Island.

Medical recruitment firms have been unable to find a suitable candidate for Dr Kenny in the past two years, leading to him deciding to advertise the position on online job sites.

He has told the New Zealand herald that his practice has “exploded” in recent years but he has had to cancel holidays because he can’t find a replacement doctor, largely due to the location of the town and the lack of schooling options for young parents.

"It's a huge problem to find replacements or find locums,” he said.

"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."

The practice, which has six doctors currently, now has 6000 patients but needs to find a junior doctor to keep up with demand.

He has advertised the position as four days a week with 12 days leave. There is also a guarantee of no weekend or night shifts.

"I can offer them a really, really amazing income; it's incredible. 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.

"Just because I earn lots of money doesn't mean I want to work my butt off."

The problem is widespread in rural New Zealand with a 2015 survey by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners found that vacancies at rural practices took longer to fill than at urban practices.