Retired palliative care and hospice nurse Barb Baker has written to Mike Gaffney MLC to highlight ongoing shortcomings in palliative and end-of-life care in Northern Tasmania in the hope that improved services could offer the terminally ill more options.

She said the sector had suffered from inadequate funding and resourcing since the closure of the six-bed Philip Oakden House in Kings Meadows in 2007.

"I believe that the system needs a huge overhaul before it receives further funding as it seems to be top heavy and the community nurses are still doing the bulk of end-of-life care for people who wish to die at home," Ms Baker said.

"I urge this committee, as they take this VAD Bill before the upper house, to first take a look at the huge gaps in the current palliative and end-of-life care services and facilities in Tasmania, so that those who are nearing the end of life may have access to that option as well as VAD."

Northern Tasmania has publicly-funded end-of-life care beds at Calvary St Luke's, which are averaged out to four in number, which can increase or decrease depending on demand. Beds are also available at smaller regional hospitals, but Ms Baker says both of these options are within either rehabilitative or general hospital settings.

She also highlighted stories of families that had struggled to find timely end-of-life care for family members with terminal illnesses in Launceston.

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Palliative Care Tasmania chief executive officer Colleen Johnstone said North and North East Tasmania were adequately serviced for bed numbers, and that in-home palliative care was available.

But she said there were still many ways in which the sector could be improved in Tasmania, and it was important to continue raising these issues as part of the voluntary assisted dying discussion.

"Overall could we say Tasmania as a state is best practice palliative care? No, you couldn't," Ms Johnstone said.

"We have an ageing workforce. We don't have enough palliative care trained nurses in our community nursing and our home services in Tasmanian Health Service.

"We need more resources right across the board in palliative care, right across the state. It's not a North vs South vs North-West issue."