Three hospitals in Lisbon opened libraries open to patients, visitors and healthcare professionals.
The initiative is promoted by the LeYa Group in partnership with the Western Lisbon Local Health Unit (ULSLO). The project aims to promote reading in a hospital environment and reinforce the commitment to more humane healthcare, inspired by the books.
The “LeYa para Cuidar” program began after an invitation from ULSLO, through the Holy Cross Hospitaland expanded to the Egas Moniz and São Francisco Xavier hospitals.
The publisher also intends to extend the initiative to St. Mary’s Hospitalwhere a library is scheduled to open by mid-November 2025. This unit already receives LeYa volunteers every Friday for story-telling sessions aimed at children hospitalized or undergoing treatment, in an action that started on World Children’s Day with the donation of 150 children’s books.
Each library has around 500 books, selected in dialogue with hospital institutions to respond to the specific needs of each unit.
While Hospital Francisco Xavier favors a collection with a strong component juvenile, Santa Cruz and Egas Moniz hospitals mainly offer titles for adults.
The books available are exclusively from the publisher LeYa and access to the libraries is ensured by their own request system, and are open to all hospital users.
In addition to libraries, LeYa highlights the role of reading in the humanization of healthcare, reinforcing its social commitment through other initiatives, such as the donation of more than 11 thousand books in the first half of 2025 to Portuguese-speaking African countries, including Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola, as well as projects in prisons and partnerships with schools in these countries.
The LeYa Group intends to continue expanding these actions in hospitals in the Lisbon region and, in the future, throughout the country, remaining an active partner in promoting reading in contexts that contribute to well-being and social transformation.
In May of this year, the Government had a national reading promotion program in the National Health Service (SNS), in a joint initiative of the State Departments of Health and Culture.
Patients admitted to public hospitals will have regular access to books and reading times, to contribute to their clinical recovery, stimulate emotional and cognitive well-being, humanize the time spent in hospital and promote literacy and combat isolation.
Because “reading is recognized as a practice with a positive impact on mental health, motivation and adherence to treatments”, explains the Government.
