diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index abbcfde..08fee79 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -20,5 +20,11 @@ services:
         ports:
             - "8000:8000"
         command: ["uvicorn", "main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]
+        healthcheck:
+            test: ["CMD-SHELL", "python -c \"import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://127.0.0.1:8000/', timeout=2)\""]
+            interval: 30s
+            timeout: 5s
+            retries: 3
+            start_period: 10s
 volumes:
     pgdata:
diff --git a/src/main.py b/src/main.py
index 053a57f..a046746 100644
--- a/src/main.py
+++ b/src/main.py
@@ -40,6 +40,13 @@ if "API_KEY" in ENV:
 else:
         logger.error("API_KEY not found in .env file... cannot continue.")
         exit()
+try:
+        with psycopg.connect(connect_statement) as conn:
+                with conn.cursor() as cur:
+                        cur.execute("SELECT 1")
+except Exception as error:
+        logger.error("Failed to connect to PostgreSQL: {}", error)
+        exit()
 
 with psycopg.connect(connect_statement) as conn:
         with conn.cursor() as cur: