Dr Shirine Boardman worked at the Lakin Road site as a diabetologist for eight years and established a clinic for Asian people at Leamington's Queensway Community Centre last year.

She was sacked by the hospital's bosses on July 22, but is appealing against the decision.

Hospital chief executive Glen Burley said: "Dr Shirine Boardman was dismissed following an internal hearing carried out in accordance with our disciplinary procedures.

"We are not going to comment in detail on the nature of the misconduct, but we can say that it does not relate to any issues of patient safety or clinical competence."

Dr Boardman declined to comment until after the appeal, but said she was "passionate" about her job.

Chairman of the South Warwickshire Diabetes UK support group David Gent said: "She was our vice-president and we hope that she will continue in that role.

"Her loss is going to be great. She will be very difficult to replace because she had a passion for what she did.

"She gave us her full support in what we were trying to do - get better services for diabetes patients in this area.

"We will have to await the outcome of the appeal, but we hope it will be in her favour and ours."

Dr Boardman was featured in the Courier in June calling for Warwickshire Primary Care Trust to improve services.

She said more specialist services in the community, closer working with GPs and greater public consultation could help "transform" it.

The Apnee Sehat clinic was created with Warwick University to try and reduce high levels of diabetes, heart disease and stroke in the Asian population.

The research clinic, where doctors and nurses have been involved in teaching Sikhs and Hindus about managing and preventing the illnesses, was heralded by the NHS's director of GPs Professor David Colin-Thome as "the start of a new era in community care".

Funded by the university and charitable grants, it has been nominated for a number of awards including the NHS's Reducing Health Inequalities social care award.

The Primary Care Trust's former director of public health Dr Tim Davies has said the clinic's future would be reassessed this year based on whether it had achieved better results than the hospital service.