[Medical leave in hospital personnel]

We investigated medical leaves of personnel at Temuco's hospital from 1986 to 1987. 57% of persons had at least one leave and 54% of these had 2 or more leaves. Women and paramedicals had more medical leaves. Most absences occurred in june, july, august (p less than 0.01). Most leaves were caused by respiratory diseases (26%) with absence periods from 1 to 6 days. Infectious and parasitic diseases caused absences ranging from 1 to 42 days. Better health policies may help decrease this rather high absenteeism due to disease.