The Senate has started Committee hearings on Bill C-277. That’s a private members bill from Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu which calls for the establishment of a national palliative care strategy in Canada.

Gladu kicked off the Committee hearing last week by talking about several components of the bill, including the notion that there is a need for better training in palliative care across the country. She says there are only about 20 palliative care specialists in Canada today, and with an aging population, the need for about 600. “But it’s not just the specialists,” she told the committee. “At the General Practitioner level, in some cases they don’t even get two months of palliative care training, and nurses are graduating with no palliative care training. Home care and hospice workers sometimes don’t have a level of training they need, and in rural and remote communities, many times it’s family members that are giving palliative care.” It’s time, she said, to “provide that training and set some standards in that area.”

ARPA’s Colin Postma sat in on the Committee hearing. He says it appears that just like in the Commons, the Bill will receive all-party support in the Senate, although there’s no word on when it will come back to the Senate Chamber for a final vote.