Former employees of Christ Medical Center are speaking out after 70 people were blamed for the closure of the Crystal River location. They say the blame should be on the doctor who runs the company.

  • 70 people fired from Christ Medical Center
  • Crystal River location had experienced problems
  • Founder said the employees were to blame
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It came out of nowhere. Last week, 70 employees came to work at Christ Medical Center in Crystal River only to find out they were being let go.

"All my employees, I mean there are a lot of people who are single moms single dads. It's a shame there's a lot of us and unfortunately we live in such a small county that there's not a lot of jobs,” said former radiology supervisor Amanda Barricklow.

The company was founded by Dr. Eihab Tawfik and the Crystal River location opened in 2013. We reached out to Dr. Tawfik today but did not hear back. He told our partners at the Citrus County Chronicle that the employees were the ones to blame for the closure. He said he gave them several warnings but no changes were made and as a result had to let them go. But the employees say they were just following his orders.

"Seventy people were led by one, so if those 70 people were wrong, they were simply wrong because of the one leading them," said former employee Ashley Galbraith.

The former employees Bay News 9 spoke to say the Crystal River location isn't the only area that's had issues. They say they've also heard complaints from patients at other locations throughout the Tampa Bay area. And they hope this incident brings to light what truly is going on within this company.

"Our names are on those records our names are on those charts those are our names and all we were doing was what we were told to do," Galbraith said.

Dr. Tawfik also told the Chronicle he feels the center will improve with a new staff. He also told them the center should be open, at least partially, on Monday.