Apple Watch without an iPhone

Hi there. I want to buy a new Apple Watch 6, but I do not have an iPhone but I do have an iPad. I am buying the watch solely for the health features and monitoring things such as steps, BP, ecg, etc and the safety features with them.

the Apple store says an iPhone is required. Is this true ? Can it connect via iPad. I want the watch to monitor the health activities and ongoing monitoring and then I assumed I could access the data and tracking on my iPad.

can you please advise how this work without an iPhone. Seems silly that these would work without an iPhone. If this works ok , I was going to buy them for my parents too as I understand they have features like fall detectors etc and my parents absolutely do not have iPhones. Lol.

seems like a basic issue , but based on the Apple store I’m now concerned

thank you