EXPERTS on palliative care will be flown from interstate to Launceston for a forum next month.

Tasmanian Labor Senator Helen Polley is organising a panel of experts to speak at the forum in a bid to highlight the issue.

``We need a far greater community awareness of what palliative care is,'' she said.

``It's particularly important in the heat of debate currently before on health spending that palliative care doesn't get left off the map.''

Senator Polley recently travelled to Newcastle to see first-hand how a hospital there provides such care.

She said there was a need to evaluate palliative care services in Tasmania and what improvements could be made.

As part of statewide budget cuts, an expansion of palliative care was stopped at the Launceston General Hospital.

The Friends of Northern Hospice and Palliative Care Foundation has been pushing for an additional palliative care bed with funding already allocated in the budget.

The foundation said $250,000 handed down in the budget was always meant for a fifth public palliative care bed at Launceston's St Lukes.

However, the government said the money would go towards palliative care services instead.

The forum will be held in Launceston on February 22.

Former MLC Don Wing will chair discussion by the panel, which will include experts from interstate and within Tasmania.