This painting is the work of Amédée Forestier (1854–1930), a French or Belgian illustrator who worked in England. He produced it in 1913 as a comment on the introduction of the ‘panel’ system in Great Britain, a precursor of the National Health Service. Panel doctors were provided under Lloyd George's National Insurance Act of 1911 to people covered by National Insurance. General practitioners were required to provide medical care to their ‘panels’ of insured patients. Many of them objected to the obligations thus placed on them by the state. Forestier's painting, produced for publication in an illustrated magazine, reminds its viewers of a previous occasion when English healthcare providers were compelled to serve the demands of the state.