There is an absence of a national standard training programme for students of medical colleges and universities, and no specialist accreditation for palliative care professionals in Kazakhstan, although Almaty hospice has developed and introduced a palliative care training programme for medical students, and Pavlodar hospice is developing a similar programme. However, lack of financing remains a problem as described by Valeriy Viktorovich Smola:

‘At the moment we are planning a seminar for doctors, hospice managers, and Public Health Ministry officers. It will include common issues of hospice organizing and palliative psychotherapy. A.V. Gnezdilov, a leading Russian specialist in the palliative sphere, has agreed to carry out the seminar, but currently we are concerned with the problem of financing it.’²⁰