Senior doctors could go on strike next month after junior doctors walk out next week.
Hospital consultants in England will strike for two days next month if they vote in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay.
Hospital bosses said the NHS will have had “little time to recover” following junior doctors' own confirmed 72-hour walkout from June 14.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said its consultant members will walk out on July 20 and 21 if the Government continues to "refuse to come forward with a credible pay offer".
If the strikes go ahead, consultants will provide Christmas Day cover, meaning they will continue to provide all emergency services but routine services will need to be paused.
Dr Vishal Sharma, who chairs the BMA consultants committee, said: "Strike action is not inevitable and it is well within the Government's gift to present us with a reasonable offer that would stop industrial action in its tracks.
"But if this isn't forthcoming, we are committed to action that is effective and that is safe.
"As the most senior and experienced doctors working in hospitals, no-one can cover for consultants - and that's why we're giving our members, our colleagues and employers lengthy time to prepare, even ahead of our ballot closing.
"If we sit by and accept further real-terms pay cuts, we will continue to lose more of our most senior and experienced clinicians at a time when the NHS and patients need them most.”
Both doctors' disputes are over the Government’s 5% pay increase for 2023/24 which comes after a decade of below-inflation deals.
Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive at NHS Providers, said: "The threat of more strikes for an overstretched NHS in the coming weeks will ring alarm bells for trust leaders up and down the country.
"The proposed dates next month follow the junior doctors' planned three-day walkout next week, which means trusts will have little time to recover between the two.
"The only way to resolve these ongoing disputes is for both sides - the unions and the Government - to sit down and talk about pay as soon as possible, and in good faith."
The Government has refused to sit down with the junior doctors until they abandon their opening demand of 35% “restorative” pay rise.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said told BBC Breakfast: "We had three weeks of talks with the junior doctors and the Government set out to a fair offer... I don't think the junior doctors refusing to move from their demand for 35% pay rise is a reasonable one.
"It's not the sort of pay rise that most of your viewers, I'm sure, themselves are receiving, so I don't think 35% is reasonable.
"We hugely value the work that our junior doctors do, the pressures that they've been under from the pandemic, the wider pressures that the NHS has been under… but I don't think a 35% pay rise is a reasonable demand. That's really what we need to see some movement on.
It comes as radiology leaders warn cancer patients face worsening NHS delays and the prospect of more gruelling treatment due to too few staff.
A poll of all 60 directors of the UK's cancer centres by the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) found 95% felt staff shortages were leading to longer waiting times for appointments and delays in cancer treatment.
The RCR warned that for every four-week delay to cancer treatment, the risk of death increased by around 10%.
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