﻿Sometimes, you just can't win for trying.

Such was the predicament the General Hospital campus found itself in on Thursday.

A Sun story detailed how the campus of the Ottawa Hospital was no longer putting up its nativity scene in the lobby of the hospital, in response to complaints over the years from the general public upset about the Christian-based symbol in the publicly-funded hospital.

The story generated an absolute deluge of angry callers and e-mailers -- upset at the decision.

In an absolute about-face, which is sure to prompt more upset callers from the other side, the campus has decided the nativity scene will be put back up -- first thing Friday morning.

Again, hard to know what's right or wrong here.

"If it's something that divides the community, that was never the intention. There's really not much more to say," explained Allison Neill, vice-president of communications with the Ottawa Hospital.

"We had lots of feedback, from the community and staff. The decision, the original decision was exactly as I said, we wanted to be welcoming of all faiths. The decision was short-sighted. (On Thursday) we heard from our community, from our staff. They called and e-mailed us. It resonated."

It's hard to defend a decision based solely on reacting to public opinion.

The campus admitted it had received a lot of complaints about the nativity scene, consulted with its community and spiritual leaders -- and decided to keep the display in storage.

And now -- again -- apparently responding to angry phone calls and e-mails, it's reversed its decision.

It's too bad more thought wasn't put into the original decision to keep the nativity scene behind closed doors.

There's a rich tradition to the displaying of the nativity scene for this former Catholic-based hospital.

Perhaps that should have been a good enough reason to keep the practice going.

And wouldn't it have been nice -- in this crazy world of today -- if everyone simply appreciated the tradition -- were tolerant -- instead of finding fault with it.

That wasn't to be.

"The hospital leadership has listened to the concerns of both our community and staff, and, after careful and thoughtful consideration, has decided to display the nativity scene, effective (Friday) morning." Neill wrote in an email to the Sun.

Here's the thing.

The hospital is indeed a publicly funded hospital -- which represents people of all faiths -- and those without faith.

The hospital's first priority has to be health care -- making the sick better.

It shouldn't and can't be about decorating the hospital lobby during the various and many religious holidays from the country's many faiths in such a way as to not upset anyone.

It shouldn't have to be worrying about appeasing one group or the other.

Unfortunately, it seems intent on playing into the various demands of diverse interest groups.

This is a story with no real winners.

Twitter: @susansherring