AT LONG LAST, patients of a Hilton Head physician accused of abusing alcohol will get to find out what’s been going on for the last year and a half, as the state Board of Medical Examiners sparred with the doctor and an administrative judge over its efforts to keep him from practicing medicine.

Administrative Law Judge Marvin Kittrell’s ruling this week unsealing the records of the case was welcome, although long overdue. The local Hilton Head Island Packet had to go to the state Supreme Court to get the records opened. The court, appropriately, ruled this summer that judges must give a reason before they close such cases, and Judge Kittrell decided simply to unseal the records. They should be available to the public this week.

It’s an outrage that the public has had to guess at what was going on all this time — and that the medical disciplinary board has been so hindered in its efforts to protect the public from physicians it deems unfit to practice. But there could be some good to come out of all of this: In part because of this case, the Legislature passed a law this spring that will allow the public to review nearly all the complaints that the board determines to be worth pursuing.

That law should make it easier for the Board of Medical Examiners to do its job, reassure the public that the board isn't just sweeping allegations under the rug to protect the profession and prevent administrative law judges from slamming the records shut on such cases after the board deliberately opened them, as happened in this case.